Three quarters of the rivers in the Balkans are ecologically so valuable, that they should be completely off limits for hydropower development. This is the conclusion of the Eco-Masterplan, which is published by the NGOs Riverwatch and EuroNatur within the context of the “Save the Blue Heart of Europe” campaign.
The Eco-Master Plan is a kind of spatial plan for the watercourses between Slovenia and Greece, indicating No-go zones for new hydropower plants. For this purpose, a river network of over 80,000 kilometers in length was scientifically assessed. The result: about 61,000 kilometers of river (76 percent) are of high ecological quality and therefore designated as No-go zones for hydropower expansion
