Welcome to riverwatch.eu

PETITION: Vjosa National Park, the only way to save Vjosa

After a decade of efforts to protect the Vjosa River in Albania, this petition will gather the voices of all supporters and demand an action that will make a real change: Proclaiming Vjosa as a National Park. Sign the petition and share it with your friends so that we join our efforts to protect what nature took centuries to create.

The Belaja power plant is one of the three KELKOS hydropower plants that must be taken off the grid pending final legal clarification. © Ulrich Eichelmann/Riverwatch.

Balkanrivers

Kosovo Supreme Court: Controversial KELAG power plants must be taken off the grid

Last week, Kosovo's Supreme Court ruled that three KELKOS hydropower plants near the village of Deçan must be shut down pending a final court decision. Moreover, KELAG withdraws complaint against two activists.

Balkanrivers

Next Webinar: Hydropower - Social Impacts and Resistance

Join us for our next Blue Heart webinar on November 4th,2021 (3-5 pm CEWT) to discuss with river activists and experts from the Balkans and beyond about social impacts of hydropower, their resistance and the lessons learned from successful river activism. REGISTER HERE

Due to hydropower and other river regulation, freshwater species are the most threatened of all © Amel Emric

General

Global call to STOP funding hydropower as false climate solution

We joined together with 300 organizations from around the world to call on our global leaders to protect rivers and stop funding hydropower projects as false solutions to the climate crisis. Hydropower is neither green nor climate-neutral and has let to an alarming loss of freshwater biodiversity.

General

European River Summit - November 2021: still open spots

The 2nd edition of the European Rivers Summit, held in Lisbon, has been postponed to November 18-20,2021 due to COVID19. There are still open spots so REGISTER NOW and join activists and specialists to share knowledge, network and talk about rivers protection, one of the most endangered ecosystems in the world. To get all further updates on the European Rivers Summit (ERS) Lisbon 2020 go to https://riverssummit.org/

Balkanrivers

New Alliance for the Protection of the Balkan Rivers - "Different Countries - Collective Struggle"

Under the slogan "Lets defend the Balkan Rivers", activists from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Montenegro, and Serbia Sarajevo met in Sarajevo on Saturday, July 3, to decide on a pan-Balkan alliance for the protection of the rivers in the region. From now on, the various organizations want to work more closely together, because the issues are the same in all countries

Maida Bilal received the award on behalf of the all the brave women of Kruščica. © Goldman Prize

Balkanrivers

Goldman Environmental Prize for the “Brave Women of Kruščica”

On Wednesday evening, Maida Bilal received the renowned 2021 Goldman Environmental Prize on behalf of the “brave women of Kruščica”. The prize is endowed with 200,000 USD. The Jury justified their decision on the grounds that hydropower is not green, and is one of the greatest threats to wild rivers and the people living along their banks. Maida Bilal and the other women fought for one of the last free-flowing rivers in Europe - and won.

Professor Gabriel Singer (University of Innsbruck) at the Shushica river taking water samples for providing further evidence that the river network of the Vjosa catchment needs the best protection possible. © Nick St.Oegger

Balkanrivers

Discovering the unknown: Science week at the Vjosa tributaries

From May 29 to June 6, a science delegation from Austria, Albania, Italy and Germany collects multidisciplinary data from the two major Vjosa tributaries Shushica and Bënça. This research week is a follow-up of a comparable undertaking at the Vjosa in 2017, which contributed substantially to our success in establishing the ecological value of the Vjosa, fending off the hydropower projects (HPP) and which led to the designation as a protected area.

Balkanrivers

Pressure continues for a Vjosa National Park as new government forms in Albania

The election may be over, but the fight for the Vjosa is not. Over the last several months, support for the Vjosa has grown tremendously in Albania, other European countries, and around the world. As a result of campaigning, Edi Rama’s government agreed to a low-level ‘nature park’ protection for the Vjosa in March - which is a good first step.

Balkanrivers

Legal Toolkit on how to protect rivers from hydropower development released

We are happy to present the Legal Toolkit which provides guidance to activists and civil society organisations in navigating the possibilities for legal actions in river protection. The toolkit will be presented on 29 April (2-4 pm CET) in a webinar. We will be happy to answer your questions and receive feedback on the toolkit.

What we do

Balkanrivers

Since 2012, we have been working on protecting Europe’s last free-flowing river jewels – the Balkan Rivers – from a massive dam craze. About 2700 dams are projected to be built between Slovenia and Greece, putting pretty much every river and creek at risk. In cooperation with the German foundation EuroNatur and together with local partners in the Balkans countries, we have been running the campaign “Save the Blue Heart of Europe” in order to prevent this scheme of destruction.

DeDamming

The campaign for the removal of old weirs and dams is a joint initiative of Riverwatch and the Manfred-Hermsen-Stiftung. Hydropower plants and weirs are not built forever. Many of them are old and not serving their intended purpose while destroying our rivers. The removal of particularly harmful dams is an integral part of river restoration, but has been neglected for too long in our regions. For this reason, we want to initiate a dam removal movement in Europe with a focus on the Alpine region and the Balkans.