Central Asia: environmental groups and scientists call on international financial institutions to preserve key freshwater bodies and stop supporting destructive hydropower projects
March 14, 2025
The future of Central Asia’s key rivers and lakes is at risk, warn international environmental groups Rivers without Boundaries, International Rivers, Friends of the Earth US, Urgewald and CEE Bankwatch Network in a formal request sent today to the World Bank, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), European Investment Bank (EIB), Asian Development Bank (ADB), Eurasian Development Bank (EDB), Islamic Development Bank (ISDB) and Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB).
Kungrad 1-3 wind power project, Uzbekistan
March 11, 2025
Kungrad is one of several large-scale renewable projects featuring extensive transmission lines slated for remote, wild areas in Central Asia – an alarming practice that hinders the sustainable energy transition.
Free-flowing rivers in Central Asia
March 3, 2025
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.
How to interact with development banks lending to hydropower projects in Central Asia: A toolkit for civil society activists
February 3, 2025
This toolkit is aimed primarily at civil society organisations in Central Asia tackling the construction of dams or other unsustainable water infrastructure.
Is crypto keeping Tajikistan’s Rogun Dam project afloat?
December 23, 2024
In a letter sent earlier this year to Bankwatch, World Bank officials defended Rogun as a potentially “transformative clean energy project that will improve domestic and regional welfare and contribute to the decarbonization of regional power grids in Central Asia, provided it is managed under sound macro-economic, commercial, and social and environmental sustainability frameworks.”
The World Bank should reconsider its mega dam project in Tajikistan
December 16, 2024
Providing funding to a repressive regime to construct the ‘highest dam in the world’ is a recipe for disaster.
Bern Convention: Western Balkan countries need to propose new protected natural areas
December 9, 2024
The Bern Convention on Friday set a new target and agreed on a roadmap for the expansion of the Emerald Network of protected areas. The aim of the Network is to preserve endangered species and habitats throughout Europe.
Emerald Network in the Western Balkans
November 27, 2024
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.
European Parliament fails to halt disastrous hydropower project jeopardising local livelihoods and endangered species
September 27, 2024
WWF and CEE Bankwatch Network question the EU Commission’s reasons for putting this decades-old project on the Danube river on its priority investment list.
Turnu Măgurele – Nikopol Hydraulic Structures Assembly on the Danube river, Romania and Bulgaria
September 20, 2024
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.
