Mining in protected areas, an update on Kumtor and Centerra Gold
March 28, 2012
Centerra Gold is being criticised for its activities in protected areas at the Kumtor gold mine and at another project in Mongolia. More lessons to be learnt for the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
Corporate largesse meets scepticism at World Water Forum
March 21, 2012
Criticism and protests around the World Water Forum have highlighted the risk of hydropower projects being greenwashed and the dangers these installations can pose to people and nature in many countries.
The European Commission, an EBRD shareholder that should start acting like one
March 1, 2012
Recent Balkan hydro projects suggest the European Commission could make much better use of its shareholder role in the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
An EBRD interpretation of biodiversity protection in the western Balkans
November 14, 2011
With potentially devastating impacts on natural habitats, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has so far offered no real commitment to environmental protection in its ambiguous decisions on two hydropower plants in Croatia and Macedonia.
Ombla hydropower plant: public money down the sinkhole
November 14, 2011
Today Bankwatch member group Zelena akcija/Friends of the Earth – Croatia held an action today outside the offices of the EBRD in Zagreb, calling on the bank not to approve a planned loan of up to EUR 123 million for the Ombla hydropower plant project. You can see some images from the demo here.
Hydropower vs. nature in southeast Europe: EBRD complicity in environmental crime?
October 31, 2011
Why is it that when we advocate for something to the international financial institutions (IFIs) they often manage to give it a peculiar twist of their own?
Did the glimmer of gold blind the EBRD?
October 11, 2011
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has become a stakeholder in a company that is involved in gold mining in a UNESCO World Heritage site in Russia. Not only does this violate its own Environmental and Social Policy, but it also tells me a lot about the bank’s assessment of partner companies.
Russian activist wins Goldman Environmental Prize
April 12, 2011
Russian environmentalist Dmitry Lisitsyn is one of the six winners of the Goldman Environmental Prize, often referred to as the Nobel Prize for environmentalism.
Tirana Botanical Garden threatened by ring road
March 14, 2011
Last week, more than 33 Albanian civil society organizations — including Bankwatch’s Albanian partner organisation EDEN — sent an open letter (pdf) to Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha, protesting against the potential destruction of the Botanical Garden in Tirana.
Khimki defender Evgenia Chirikova is a woman of courage, literally now
March 11, 2011
Evgenia Chirikova, the leading figure of the Movement to Defend Khimki Forest has yesterday received the US Woman of Courage Award to honour her relentless efforts to save the Khimki Forest near Moscow from being transformed into a motorway.
