Bern Convention: Macedonian government is urged to halt construction of hydropower plants in national park
December 11, 2017
Plans for 17 hydropower plants throughout Macedonia’s Mavrovo National Park must be immediately suspended, so the Standing Committee of the Bern Convention ruled at its annual meeting last week.
Macedonia urged to suspend controversial hydropower project
December 4, 2015
Strasbourg, Skopje, Prague – In the latest blow to planned hydropower dam in Macedonia’s Mavrovo National Park, the Standing Committee of the Bern Convention, the European wildlife treaty, added today its voice to growing calls to reconsider this reckless project. The spotlight is now on the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the project’s main financier.
Bern Convention Committee to decide fate of Balkan lynx and Boskov Most hydropower plant in Macedonia
November 30, 2015
The critically endangered population of the Balkan lynx (Lynx lynx balcanicus) may be getting a new lease on life this week after being threatened by planned hydropower constructions in its core area of reproduction.
Activists help put the brakes on Balkan hydro projects
August 27, 2015
Balkan governments are under mounting pressure to curb the construction of hydropower plants (HPPs) in national parks and wildlife areas, where hundreds of projects are planned or underway. Environmental campaigners have already scored successes in halting new HPPs. In late July, Croatia’s environment ministry rejected Hrvatska Elektroprivreda’s impact study for its 68-MW Ombla HPP near historic Dubrovnik, Courts in Republika Srpska (RS) have twice this year backed activists’ claims that environmental assessments on proposed plants in the Sutjeska National Park were flawed.
Pressure mounts on EBRD to quit Macedonian dam folly
May 14, 2015
Macedonia’s Mavrovo national park is the largest and richest national park in the country and home to the critically endangered Balkan Lynx. The Macedonian government, however, has plans to also make Mavrovo the home for two large and around 20 small hydro power plants. Could the EBRD cancel its involvement in one of the projects?
Where will all that power go? New study assesses extravagant energy ambitions in the western Balkans
May 14, 2015
Western Balkan countries have ambitious plans to increase their electricity generation over the next years. But what will happen if they all become a regional energy hub? Will there be a demand for all the available electricity?
Western Balkans electricity plans: where will all that power go?
March 23, 2015
Western Balkan countries have ambitious plans to increase their electricity generation over the next years. But what will happen if they all become a regional energy hub? Will there be a demand for all the available electricity?
The Boskov Most hydropower plant, Macedonia
October 20, 2014
The Boskov Most hydropower plant includes an accumulation dam 33 metres in height and a power plant with a total capacity of 68MW, Around 80 per cent of the project falls within the territory of the Mavrovo national park, the largest and richest national park in Macedonia. Three years after the signing of a loan agreement over EUR 65 million from the EBRD, little progress has been made with the project. This briefing details several reasons why the project should not receive support from the EBRD.
Balkan lynx stage protest at annual meeting of European Bank for Reconstruction and Development
May 15, 2014
A delegation of 20 lynx from Mavrovo National Park in Macedonia today occupied a corridor in the Polish National Stadium in Warsaw, where the EBRD Annual General Meetings are taking place 14-15 May. Their message: “EBRD, don’t finance the Boskov Most dam, as it will destroy the forest in which we live and eventually kill us.” The 20 delegates from Mavrovo Park constitute almost half of the little over 50 lynxes which still survive in the park today (the Balkan lynx is an endangered species).
Threat posed by hydro to Mavrovo National Park under the spotlight at Skopje conference
April 15, 2014
On Thursday in Skopje, over 100 people attended the first public conference [mk] regarding the two planned hydropower plants in the Mavrovo National Park, one of the oldest and most valuable protected areas in the country. A petition to save the park that was launched one day earlier has already gathered over 13 000 signatures.
