13 years and counting - Save the Kresna Gorge

A slideshow documenting 13 years of campaigning to save the Kresna gorge in Bulgaria - a NATURA 2000 site and home to an extraordinarily high number of endemic and rare protected species.

For many years the project developers of the Struma motorway and Bulgarian authorities did not seriously consider alternative routes for the motorway outside the gorge. Finally, after 10 years of campaigning and an intervention by the European Commission, local people, road authorities, NGOs and relevant ministries agreed on a motorway construction based on tunnels to avoid passing directly through the protected area.

However, the tunnel construction has recently been postponed until after 2014 and will thus be the last part of the motorway to be constructed. There is a high risk that once the other sections are completed, the last and most complex one - the tunnel - may be abolished.

More information at: http://bankwatch.org/project/Kresna

Category:

Nonprofits & Activism

Tags:

• motorway
• environment
• eufunds
• cohesion
• natura2000
• activism
• campaign
• slideshow
• Bulgaria
• bankwatch
• balkans