Major banks put up nearly €1bn for controversial Balkan dams, says report

Multilateral development banks are funding a roll out of hydropower projects in national parks, world heritage sites and conservation zones across the Balkans

International banks have ploughed hundreds of millions of euros into a wave of hydropower projects sweeping across many pristine national parks and environmentally-protected regions in the Balkans, according to a new report.

Around half of 1,640 planned and actual projects in countries such as Bosnia, Macedonia and Albania are to be constructed in protected national parks, world heritage and Natura 2000 (EU protected) sites or their equivalents.