29 Apr 2021
Webinar on Legal Tools to Protect Rivers from Hydropower Development

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Event Date: 29/04/2021
Venue: https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/legal-tools-to-protect-rivers-from-hydropower-development-tickets-146767183597

For years, activists and civil society organisations have been arguing against the further damming of Europe’s remaining free-flowing rivers. In particular, the construction of new small and large hydropower projects comes with disastrous ecological consequences for riverine ecosystems.

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 and EU environmental legal provisions are therefore valuable tools to challenge the construction of new hydropower projects.

At this webinar we present our soon to be launched LEGAL TOOLKIT on how to protect rivers from hydropower development. We also invite you to share and discuss your experiences with legal battles against hydropower projects!

Speakers:

  • Amelie Huber & Annette Spangenberg – EuroNatur
  • Henk Zingstra – Wetlands International European Association
  • Malgorzata Smolak – Independent Lawyer and toolkit author
  • Maja Pravuljac – ClientEarth

More information on the programme soon!

  • The “Toolkit – How to use EU and international environmental law to protect rivers from hydropower development” (to be launched on 15 April 2021) 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.
  • This webinar is 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 (www.balkanrivers.net) and launched by EuroNatur, GEOTA, RiverWatch, Wetlands International European Association and WWF Adria. Lawyers for Rivers aims to enable capacity building and exchange on experiences with legal activism for river protection.