WWF Romania suspends hydropower projects in protected areas

Newsroom 22/01/2014 | 12:36

WWF Romania presented yesterday in a press conference that Romania will suspend new hydropower projects in protected areas in a bid to preserve biodiversity, information that was presented largely by AFP. These so-called “exclusion zones” should be established by May 31.

“The planned construction of thousands of small-scale hydropower stations across the Carpathian mountains in eastern Europe threatens hundreds of streams and rivers, the WWF has warned for years”, noted the news agency.

According to the same source, around 20,000 Romanians have signed a petition over the last two months calling on the government to save mountain streams that are key to endangered species such as otters. The petition can still be signed here.

“We are not against investment in energy, but some streams have such an ecological value that we cannot destroy them for the sake of immediate profit,” Magor Csibi, WWF director in Romania, told in the press conference, quoted by AFP.

Forests and Water Minister Lucia Varga promised that a joint commission would decide which natural areas should be free from hydropower plants to protect biodiversity.