Hollywood star Leonardo DiCaprio urged the Government of Bosnia’s Federation (FBiH) entity to protect its rivers from small hydropower plant projects as part of a campaign by global environmental organisations that were alarmed about the problem following a series of protests by Bosnian citizens and activists.
DiCaprio, who has been an environmental activist for years, previously already expressed support for the appeal by numerous global environmental organisations towards the FBiH government to ban the construction of small hydropower plants and protect thousands of kilometres of Balkan rivers, otherwise known as Europe’s “blue heart.”
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The Hollywood actor urged the FBiH Government to take action and quoted a recent statement by FBiH Prime Minister, Fadil Novalic, on Facebook and Instagram.
“As a result of the global campaign launched last week calling on the government of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina to permanently protect the country’s last wild rivers from small hydropower projects and the local protests that followed, the Federation Prime Minister Mr. Fadil Novalic issued a public statement in support of the protests: “I personally support environmental NGOs. As a great lover of nature, I will always support conservation projects. I think clean rivers are more important to us than electricity. We are probably the only country in the region that is energy independent, we get enough energy from other sources. We must keep our rivers clean and pass them on to future generations.”
Bosnia and Herzegovina rivers are facing imminent destruction due to 463 small hydropower projects currently under construction or being planned. The federation needs to take swift action now—like we’ve done in the United States with the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act—to permanently protect the most biodiverse rivers remaining in Europe, a lifeline for local communities and many endangered species that the world otherwise risks losing,” DiCaprio wrote.
“Balkan rivers continue to face the onslaught of the construction of small hydropower plants, including in protected areas, with plans to build 3,000 dams in the region. Dams also bring with them the construction of access roads, bridges and transmission lines,” the Atelier for Community Transformation (ACT) said on Wednesday.
“The construction of dams and small hydropower plants destroys the surrounding forest and endangers the animals that live there. According to freshwater fish experts, if these plans are realized, at least 10 percent of European freshwater fish species will become extinct or end up on the verge of extinction,” it said.
