One of the reasons why the Government of Serbia recently proposed amendments to the Law on Nature Protection is the problem of building small hydro power plants (SHPPs) in protected areas. If the changes are adopted, the managers of protected areas will be able to prevent the negative consequences of a project in the territory they manage in a timely manner.
By prescribing the obligation to submit an act on the conditions of nature protection, the legislator states that it provides the manager of a protected area with adequate participation in certain processes. In that way, the shortcomings that have been noticed in the previous practice are eliminated.
Because, in the past, natural resource managers often did not even know about the issued conditions for nature protection, until the very moment when works and activities on a project implemented in their natural resource began (for example during the construction of a SHPP).
So far, the conditions on nature protection for investors have been issued by the Provincial Institute for Nature Protection, as well as the Institute for Nature Protection of Serbia.
The proposer of the amendments to the law emphasizes that the managers of protected areas will be able to react in a timely manner, with the help of complaints or some other legal remedy, if they believe that a project endangers the protected area under their control.
What is actually changing with the changes in the law?
The novelties in the law stipulate that the act on the conditions of nature protection shall determine mitigation measures as well as the prevention of “significant negative impacts” on the encironmentally significant area. The proposer of a plan or project, on the other hand, may propose measures to remove that doubt.
It is also envisaged that the assessment of the acceptability of a project in a protected area will be in accordance with the “precautionary principle”. It would follow it during the preparation, before adoption, issuance of location conditions, location permit, or some other approval, and within that principle, the best scientific methods would be consulted.
The Government of Serbia reminds that the recently adopted Law on Renewable Energy Sources prohibits the construction of SHPPs in protected areas, unless the public interest is defined for that.
In the proposed amendments to the Law on Nature Protection, it is defined that the Government of Serbia decides on that public interest for projects in protected areas, based on the proposal of the competent ministry.
The new amendments further define the rules for assessing the acceptability of a project in an environmentally significant area. The manner of informing the public, the procedure for determining the prevailing public interest and the compensatory measures of a project are also defined.
One is the law, and the other is its application
According to the data submitted by the managers of protected areas, by August 2019, it is planned to build as many as small hydro power plants in the protected natural assets of Serbia, and so far 18 of them have been built, while five are under construction.
As the current law requires, when preparing technical documentation for the construction of a SHPP, it is necessary to determine the environmental survival flow or the so-called “biological minimum”, which should ensure the survival of wildlife in rivers by building fish paths. It is stated that the control of fish paths on SHPPs has not been performed at any such facility so far.
It is reminded that the territory of Serbia covers 7.67% of protected areas, so our country as such belongs to one of the most important centers of biodiversity in Europe, with its numerous specific ecosystems.
The movement Let’s Defend the Stara Planina River, which is fighting against the construction of derivation SHPPs, previously asked the state for a complete ban on their construction. Their main argument is that this type of SHPP produces little energy, as well as that their construction destroys the environment, Nova Ekonomija reports.
