A clash is raging between nature and finance. On the one hand, the EU is striving to improve the deteriorating state of nature across Europe, with initiatives like the Biodiversity Strategy 2030 and the Nature Restoration Law. On the other, massive amounts of public money continue to flow to infrastructure projects with devastating impacts on the natural world. Our work where finance meets nature advocates for adequate protection and restoration projects to ensure a green future for all.
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Rivers and communities
The countries of the Energy Community Treaty have diverse energy mixes, but hydropower has traditionally played a strong role in many of them. Albania is almost completely reliant on dams for its domestic electricity generation, followed by Georgia with an average of 80 per cent of electricity generated by hydropower and Montenegro with an average of 55 per cent.
EU funds and biodiversity
In May 2020, EU leaders committed to an ambitious Biodiversity Strategy for 2030, outlining the clear need to act on biodiversity loss and address the failing health of nature.
Discussions are now underway to agree on a new EU budget which will run from 2027 to 2034. This represents a golden opportunity to improve biodiversity spending to achieve the objectives of the biodiversity strategy in full.
As well as addressing the biodiversity crisis, strategically supporting nature through EU funds is also one of the most effective ways to tackle climate change, while providing jobs and improved health at the same time.
Yet, with many of the previous strategy’s objectives left unachieved, the pressure now mounts for this decade. Never before has there been so much potential – and urgency – to use EU funds and investments to address the biodiversity crisis.
Related projects
Free-flowing rivers in Central Asia
Central Asian rivers are under threat from hundreds of new hydropower plants. We have created a map of the key rivers in the region that need urgent protection and are calling on the development banks to stop their destruction.
Emerald Network in the Western Balkans
Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Serbia are required to establish a sufficient number of Emerald Network sites as signatories to the Bern Convention. However, since 2011, not a single new site has been proposed and many stunning rivers remain unprotected. The #EmeraldForRivers campaign aims to support governments in expanding the Emerald Network.
Turnu Măgurele – Nikopol Hydraulic Structures Assembly on the Danube river, Romania and Bulgaria
The project, if built, would not only devastate critical habitats, leading to the potential extinction of species such as the Danube sturgeons, but also displace local communities, disrupt existing investments, and violate several EU environmental directives.
Latest news
Georgia’s highlanders against hydropower
Blog entry | 20 September, 2017As the Georgian government moves ahead with its plans for increasing the country’s hydropower capacity, local communities are being sidelined in the process of compensation payments.
Read moreBulgaria’s Struma motorway becomes test case for European Commission’s commitment to EU nature protection law
Blog entry | 14 September, 2017With crude manipulations, the Bulgarian government is trying to push through a contended motorway route that would damage the country’s biodiversity hotspot in breach of EU law and international conventions. It expects that the European Commission will sit, watch and pay for it.
Read moreSystematic shortcomings will deprive people affected by Georgian dam of compensation
Blog entry | 11 September, 2017An assessment of livelihoods of people to be affected by the Nenskra hydropower plant in Georgia is rigged with mistakes that will lead to significant losses for locals.
Read moreRelated publications
Еcological networks in Montenegro: Strategic Roadmap to achieve the targets of the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Bern Convention and the EU Biodiversity Strategy
Briefing | 21 October, 2026 | Download PDFMontenegro has made substantial progress toward achieving the target under the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) by proposing a comprehensive Natura 2000 network.
Dighomi Meadows: Years of institutional failure risk erasing last floodplain forest in Tbilisi, Georgia
Briefing | 21 October, 2026 | Download PDFThe Dighomi Meadows, a once rich and varied natural habitat and an internationally recognised Emerald Network site, have been in danger since 2014 due to encroaching development, unregulated and illegal gravel extraction, and illegal waste dumping. In 2024, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) approved a strategy and action plan to rehabilitate the meadows. However, the restoration never materialised.
The Commission’s ‘do no significant harm’ concept paper: Clearer approach welcome but major loopholes must be closed
Position paper | 14 September, 2026 | Download PDFThis position paper examines the European Commission’s concept paper on the ‘do no significant harm’ (DNSH) principle under the next EU long-term budget.
