120,000 sign petition to save one of Europe's last unspoiled corners
More than 120,000 people have signed a petition calling for one of the last true wildernesses in Europe to be protected from hydroelectric dams.
Home to the only remaining undammed rivers on the Continent, the so-called Blue Heart of Europe is an area of around 2,500 square miles in Albania and Greece, containing the 169-mile river Vjosa. But its free-flowing waters are under threat from some 36 planned developments. Across the Balkan region as a whole, from Slovenia south to Greece, 1,003 already exist while nearly 3,000 more are in the pipeline.
Campaigners are concerned that blocking or diverting the paths of the rivers will destroy biodiversity, impact local communities and put the brakes on a fledgling tourist industry. Rivers such as the Vjosa are popular for white-water rafting trips.
This week a group spearheaded by a number of environmental organisations, as well as clothing brand Patagonia, delivered a petition to the London headquarters of the European Bank of Reconstruction and Redevelopment (EBRD), which is involved in financing development in the region.
The petition called on commercial lenders across Europe to restrict funding for projects in protected areas, apply more stringent green conditions to loans and divert money towards lower-impact renewable energy sources.
“120,000 signatures represents the largest petition response that EBRD has ever received on energy issues,” said Fidanka McGrath, from financial campaigner group Bankwatch.
“The bank prides itself on moving markets, so we hope it will take this groundswell of global public opinion to heart and drive investments in a more diverse mix of renewables, while also applying strict environmental and social safeguards.”
Yvon Choulnard, founder of Patagonia, which created the Blue Heart documentary, called the dam investments a “waste of money and a moral travesty”.
In the US, the narrative regarding dams has changed in recent years, with campaigns to pull down “deadbeat dams” gathering momentum. In America only three per cent of the nation’s 80,000 dams generate electricity. The remainder impact water quality, block the movement of nutrients and sediment and destroy fish and wildlife habitats, without yield.
The rivers of the Balkans...
... and the dams that threaten them
In the Balkans, there are concerns that hundreds of dams could drive the Danube salmon to extinction and affect the survival of the endangered Balkan lynx in Macedonia. Two short films have been made about the issue, Blue Heart, and Adventures Not Dams, made by travel company Much Better Adventures.
The Blue Heart campaign has already enjoyed one victory after a court in Bosnia and Herzegovina ruled that an environmental permit for dam construction on the Kruscica river, one of the three rivers featured in the Blue Heart film, be annulled, halting construction.
Albania, like many of the Balkan states, is experiencing a boom period in visitor numbers, with travellers drawn to raw beauty of its mountains, valleys, forests, rivers and lakes. Since 2000, tourism arrivals to the former socialist republic has multiplied by nearly 13 times to 4.1 million. Many regard the country as the Mediterranean's last “secret”.
The EBRD has been contacted for comment.
