General

For all river lovers: Between January 22 and 24, the first “River Film Festival Berlin” takes place in the Moviemento Cinema in the Kreuzberg district. Look forward to over 30 movies featuring breathtaking river landscapes as well as discussion forums with environmental activists who fight for the preservation of these valuable habitats. Dive in and discover the wonderful world of rivers!

A new study that Bankwatch published on December 11 deals with European public funding and EU companies, which are fuelling a wave of hydropower development and endangering pristine river environments in the Balkans. It shows who is involved in financing hydropower projects in the region, both overall and inside of protected areas. Bankwatch produced a series of info graphics:

A wave of hydropower development fuelled by European public funding and EU companies is endangering pristine river environments in the Balkans, finds a new study by CEE Bankwatch Network released today.

++The Austrian-German energy company is constructing a hydropower on the Sana River, endangering a globally threatened fish species ++ NGOs and scientists protesting++

We produced three short films about the Balkan Rivers: one about its biodiversity, one about its threats and the third features locals standing up for their river. Enjoy!

We want to visualize a network of initiatives and people who fight for rivers in the Balkans. For this purpose we have created a “River Ambassadors” layer in the interactive map on this website. We would like to add you as well! If you want to be included, please send us the following information:

During the past weekend, Belgrade became the center of European river conservationists and dam opponents. From September 25^th-27^th, 120 people from 18 countries discussed how to stop the dam tsunami in the Balkans and in other regions in Europe.

Download our campaign brochure and enjoy stunning photos and insightful information. DOWNLOAD HERE

In a follow-up study of the initial "Hydromorphological Status and Dam Projects" study from 2012 (U. Schwarz), we included small hydropower plants as well, when previously only those over 1 MW were recorded. A total of 2,683 future hydropower projects have been recorded on the Balkan Peninsula.  Additionally, 714 existing dams were found in this region.

An article in the renowned Berliner Zeitung reports about the uniqueness of the natural landscape in the Balkan, about the threat due to hydropower development, as well as about our campaign to save Balkan Rivers. Sorry, in German only: Das Blaue Herz Europas