RERI: The Legal Team Taking On Serbia's Small Hydropower Boom

RERI is a Belgrade-based NGO that defends Serbia's rivers and protected areas by legal means, helping citizens understand and enforce their environmental rights. Its investigations found regulatory violations, including abuse of public authority and non-compliance with planning and water-conservation rules, in around 20 small hydropower plant construction cases it examined across Serbia. That documentation fed into the broader civic campaign to defend the rivers of Stara Planina and other protected mountains from a wave of small hydropower projects, contributing to Serbia's 2021 renewable energy law explicitly banning new hydropower construction in protected areas. RERI continues to litigate individual cases and lets citizens report suspected violations directly through its website.