Blue heart of Europe

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The Savica

As Blue Heart of Europe (Engl. The Blue Heart of Europe), the branched network of natural and largely referred partially to completely pristine rivers in the Balkans. Similar to the European Green Belt, this nature conservation initiative aims to preserve a habitat network that is particularly useful for maintaining biodiversity .

Territorial delimitation

The Blue Heart of Europe includes the rivers in Slovenia , Croatia , Bosnia and Herzegovina , Serbia , Montenegro , Kosovo , Albania , North Macedonia and Bulgaria as well as the rivers in northern Greece and in the European part of Turkey .

Ecological importance

Nowhere else in Europe is there such a high proportion of completely natural or near-natural river landscapes as in the Balkans . A hydromorphological study of 36,000 river kilometers showed that 80 percent of the flowing waters in the Balkans are in good to very good condition (as of 2012).

The fauna and flora associated with the river landscapes are also largely in a good state of preservation. More than half of the endangered freshwater mollusks and 28 percent of the endangered freshwater fish in Europe are found in the Blue Heart of Europe.

In addition, the Balkan region has a number of endemics : For example, 69 species of fish can only be found in the Blue Heart of Europe. The Blue Heart of Europe is one of the hotspots of biodiversity and thus makes an extraordinary contribution to the implementation of the Convention on Biological Diversity .

Legal basis

The EU member states in the Balkans have to comply with European law standards in project approval procedures in the area of ​​rivers (hydropower plants, buildings and infrastructure in the bank area, etc.). With regard to the ecological impact, these are primarily the Water Framework Directive (Directive 2000/60 / EC, WFD), the Fauna-Flora-Habitat Directive (Directive 92/43 / EEC, Habitats Directive) and the EIA Directive ( Directive 2011/92 / EU, previously 85/337 / EEC).

The prohibition of deterioration of the water framework and FFH guidelines also sets narrow limits for interventions in the natural and near-natural flowing water sections, such as Article 10 of the FFH guideline, which aims to preserve the landscape elements, those for the ecological networking function, for the migration, the geographical Distribution and genetic exchange of wild species are essential. The guideline explicitly stated “rivers with their banks” .

Danger

The Blue Heart of Europe is in great danger from plans to build hydropower plants . Currently (as of 2015), 2,683 hydropower plants are planned in the Balkans, which will affect almost all flowing waters .

The larger rivers such as the Sava are also being expanded for shipping .

In addition to the impairment of species that are bound to intact natural flowing waters, endangered species that have no direct connection to aquatic habitats are also affected. If the planned power plants in the Mavrovo National Park in North Macedonia were to be realized, around 4400 hectares of the habitat of the Balkan lynx (Lynx lynx balcanicus) would be lost due to the damming of the rivers . It is the last known reproduction area of ​​this species.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. SCHWARZ, U. (2012): Balkan Rivers - The Blue Heart of Europe, Hydromorphological Status and Dam Projects, Report, 151 pp. [PDF, 6.4 MB]
  2. a b FREYHOF, J. (2012): Threatened freshwater fishes and molluscs of the Balkan - Potential impacts of hydropower projects, Report, 86 pp. [PDF, 13.3 MB]
  3. a b c The blue heart of Europe is threatened with infarction - two current studies prove the natural values ​​of the Balkan rivers for the first time - large-scale expansion for hydropower planned. Press release. In: Euronatur. May 16, 2012, accessed February 14, 2016 .
  4. EICHELMANN, U. (2014): "Dam Tsunami in Balkans Threatens the 'Blue Heart of Europe'". In: World Rivers Review, issue June 2014, p. 8-9 ( Memento of the original from July 4, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. [PDF, 5.9 MB]  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.internationalrivers.org
  5. SCHWARZ, U. (2015): Hydropower Projects on the Balkan Rivers - Update, RiverWatch & EuroNatur, 33 pp. [PDF, 9.3 MB]
  6. RiverWatch & EuroNatur (undated): Factsheet on the Save, 6 pp. [PDF, 316 kB]
  7. Protect (2014): Article on dam projects in the Mavrovo National Park in Macedonia