After ten years of dedicated action by local communities, environmentalists, scientists and artists to permanently protect the Vjosa River and its tributaries, today, the Albanian government took the historic step of signing a commitment to establish a Vjosa Wild River National Park. The Wild River National Park will protect the entire network of the Vjosa from the Greek border to the Adriatic Sea, including the free-flowing tributaries. This is something that has never been done before in Europe.

On June 4th, well-known artists from Albanian and abroad performed at the "Vjosa Forever" concert in Tepelena in support of the #VjosaNationalParkNow campaign: At the concert, organized by Blue Heart partner EcoAlbania, hundreds of supporters filled the Lord Byron square in Tepelena and enjoyed the electrifying performances of the #ArtistsForVjosa

On April 30, many people met in the middle Kamp Valley near Rosenburg to explore it and to demand its protection. On the old dam of the Rosenburg power plant, activists with canoes mounted a large banner demanding the opening of the dam and the liberation of the river. In the video Ulrich Eichelmann, Oliver Lehmann, Doris Knecht, Stefan Glaser und Werner Gamerith explain why they advocate the preservation or restoration of the living, free-flowing Kamp river.

The aging Rosenburg power plant has long been a thorn in the side of conservationists. Now, according to plans of the energy company EVN, it is to be replaced by a larger power plant - with massive ecological consequences for the entire Kamp Valley. The "Kamp Days" therefore focus on the demand for a restoration and a complete removal of the existing powerplant.

The theme of this year’s World Water Day is “making the invisible visible” with a special emphasis on the importance of groundwater. Groundwater is quantitatively the most important freshwater resource as there is 100 times more groundwater than surface water. In fact, it is where we source most of our fresh drinking water.

The German development bank KfW has today confirmed that it has dropped plans to finance the controversial Janjići hydropower plant on the river Bosna in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The plant would entail a 16 m high dam and would flood a picturesque section of the river with a series of rapids upstream from Zenica.

After a fundraising campaign, solar panels are installed on the rooftops of public buildings and streets of Kutë village on the Vjosa in Albania as an alternative to hydropower plants for the benefit of the local community and environment

At the urging of nature conservation organizations, the Standing Committee of the Bern Convention took another look at various projects in the Balkans at its most recent meeting. These include an airport in the middle of the Narta Lagoon in the Vjosa delta in Albania or a series of hydropower plants along the Neretva in Bosnia-Herzegovina.