The true colours of Svaneti – A festival in the stunning Georgian mountains
August 30, 2017
Despite the remote location, the culture festival We Are Svaneti brought together people from three continents and helped young Svans to become aware of their communities’ unique traditions.
The fight for Europe′s last untamed river
August 24, 2017
The Vjosa in southern Albania is the last free-flowing river in Europe and is crucial to thousands of livelihoods. But the Balkan frenzy over hydropower threatens the future of the entire valley. Source: The fight for Europe′s last untamed river | Envi
Nenskra hydropower plant, Georgia
June 22, 2017
The Nenskra dam is the largest of Georgia’s massive plans for hydropower installations in the Upper Svaneti region. If realized, it will deprive the local indigenous communities of their ancestral lands and traditional livelihoods, and cause an irreversible damage to the fragile river and mountain ecosystems.
Women and hydropower: exacerbating vulnerability without resettlement
June 19, 2017
The disproportionate impacts that the Nenskra hydropower project in Georgia will have on women are not being assessed by the project company, in spite of its financiers’ standards.
Powerline to nowhere: Georgian villages take stand against badly routed transmission lines
June 13, 2017
Mountain villages in the country’s northeast protest for changes to the routing of high voltage lines in a series of local protests.
From Enver Hoxha to the EBRD (and back) – hydropower in Albania
June 7, 2017
The EBRD and Societe Generale are now sponsoring a mass-scale construction project across Albania. Over 300 hydropower plants in various stages of development are posing real threats to the mountainous country’s nature and people. They should avoid repeating Ever Hoxha’s concrete folly.
Locals oppose dam that is set to endanger critical fish habitat in Bosnia-Herzegovina
May 30, 2017
We are passing through the canyon of the river Vrbas, in north-west Bosnia-Herzegovina. I am looking through a car window, mouth wide open in awe. While I look up to the rocky, edgy peaks hundreds of meters above and down to the heavenly blue river, I
“To the best of our knowledge”: How to improve the transparency and accountability of intermediated EBRD investments in three steps
May 9, 2017
Disbursing public money via private-sector controlled financial intermediaries (FIs) is a means to an end: reaching a larger set of smaller beneficiaries. It has its strong rationale, in particular when it comes to renewable energy projects that, in co
Nenskra hydropower plant project, Georgia
May 5, 2017
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is in the process of assessing a loan for the 280 megawatt Nenskra hydropower plant in Georgia. In March supplementary environmental and social impact assessments (ESIA) were released in order
Babino Selo HPP Bosnia-Herzegovina Herzegovina
May 5, 2017
