As many as 113 hydroelectric power plants are planned to be built inside national parks, which will not only destroy protected areas but goes against the very concept of protected areas, said the main coordinator of the Save the Blue Heart of Europe campaign, Ulrich Eichelmann of Riverwatch.
Despite its membership in the EU, Croatia plans to build more than 80 hydroelectric power plants in its protected areas. The most affected by those plans are the Krka National Park, where as many as four such plants are planned to be built and the biosphere reserve and regional park Mura-Drava-Danube, where nine more hydropower plants are to be built.
The Ramsar areas such as Lonjsko Polje or the Neretva River delta have not been spared such plans either, the Croatian campaign partners said in a statement.
A large number of said hydropower projects in protected areas are supported by multinational companies and banks based in the EU. In the Mavrovo National Park in Macedonia, as many as 22 hydropower plants are expected to be built, of which a large number is to be financed by the World Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
Currently 535 hydropower projects are planned in national parks, biosphere reserves, UNESCO's world heritage sites, or the Ramsar and Natura 2000 areas.
Together with planned projects in areas with a lower degree of protection, such as protected landscapes and nature parks, where an additional 282 projects are planned, this makes a total of as many as 817 hydropower projects, it is said in the statement.
"Hydropower plants must not be used in the same sentence as protected areas. Banks, financial institutions and the EU must immediately stop financing these harmful projects so as to protect natural heritage and foundations for the development of local communities," said the Croatian campaign coordinator, Tibor Mikuska of the Croatian Bird and Nature Protection Association.