To make way for the rapid development of hydropower, mandatory legal procedures and environmental impact assessment provisions are often sidestepped or not properly implemented. International laws and EU environmental regulations have therefore become valuable tools in preventing the construction of new hydropower projects.
In our next Blue Heart webinar on Thursday, 29 April (14-16:00), we will be presenting our Legal Toolkit for the protection of rivers. Together with our partners from Wetlands International Europe and ClientEarth, we invite you to share and discuss your experiences and questions regarding legal steps taken against hydropower projects! REGISTER HERE
The webinar will be the first in a series of events under the Lawyers for Rivers initiative, conceived in the context of the "Save the Blue Heart of Europe" campaign and launched together with EuroNatur, Riverwatch, GEOTA, Wetlands International Europe and WWF Adria. Lawyers for Rivers aims to enable capacity building and exchange on experiences with legal activism for river protection.
Speakers:
- Amelie Huber & Annette Spangenberg - EuroNatur
- Henk Zingstra - Wetlands International European Association
- Malgorzata Smolak - Independent Lawyer and toolkit author
- Maja Pravuljac - ClientEarth
The "Toolkit - How to use EU and international environmental law to protect rivers from hydropower development" (read online or download the PDF) ) is meant to help activists and civil society organisation without a legal background understand the possibilities for legal action in river protection. It aims to provide an easy, accessible overview of the most relevant EU and international environmental laws, which can be used to legally challenge new hydropower plants in ecologically sensitive areas.
