News - Campaign Events

Invitation: Balkan Rivers Days

 12.06.2015

We are happy to invite you to the Balkan Rivers Days in Belgrade this September - the first event of this kind in Europe! This free event shall be a first get-together of people from river NGOs, local initiatives, and anti-dam movements, along with fishermen, boaters and other river lovers from all over the Balkans and elsewhere.

WE NEED YOUR HELP: Film yourself to save your river

 22.05.2015

We are producing a short film about people who want to keep their rivers free from hydropower plants. We need your help for that! This is the idea: film yourself in front of a river that is threatened by a hydropower project while saying the following sentences: “This is (name of the river). I love my river and I don´t want it to be damed. Save the Blue Heart of Europe." Pleases say it both in English and in your native language.

Videos: From the Bence Protest

Ulrich Eichelmann (Riverwatch) takes you to the Bence River - a tributary of the Vjosa and one of the most beautiful and ecologically most valuable rivers in Albania. However, the river is threatened by the construction of a hydropower plant: 95% of its water ...

European Parliament criticizes Albania’s hydropower policies

++ Stop of hydropower projects on the Vjosa and its tributaries demanded ++ Protest against hydropower projects in Albania. The European Parliament called upon the Albanian government to rethink the projected hydropower projects along the Vjosa River and its tributaries, “…since these projects would harm one of Europe’s last extensive, intact and near-natural river ecosystems”.

Impressions and media coverage of our latest campaign events

Lots of things have happened in the campaign in the last couple of weeks. Visual impressions thereof are now available on our website!

Study confirms: The Heart of the Huchen beats on the Balkans

Globally endangered fish species detected in 43 rivers on a length of 1,840 km ++ 1,000 km of which threatened by hydropower projects ++ campaign to stop dams. As a contribution to this year’s UN World Water Day (22.3.), representatives of the fields of science and fisheries in cooperation with environmental NGOs present a study about the distribution of the Huchen on the Balkan Peninsula.

Save the Date: Balkan Rivers Conference in September 2015

 18.03.2015

We are happy to inform you about the Balkan Rivers Conference in September 2015 – the first event of this kind in Europe! Please mark the dates in your calendar! Organized within the context of the Save the Blue Heart of Europe Campaign, it shall be a first get-together of river NGOs, initiatives, anti-dam movements, fishermen and other river lovers from all over the Balkans and elsewhere.

Vjosa in Albania: Municipalities of Përmet and Çarshovë want National Park instead of dams

150 people discuss the future of the river - parliamentarians will be informed. On Wednesday and Thursday the first public discussions about the future of the Vjosa Valley took place in Çarshovë and Përmet in southern Albania. While  the government envisages the construction of eight dams along the river, the mayors and people of the affected communities support the alternative idea of establishing a national park.

Wolf, Egyptian Vulture, Black Pennant, and Black Widow recorded at the Vjosa River in Albania

Vienna, Radolfzell, August 21, 2014. In the context of the Days of Biodiversity – an initiative of the German GEO magazine – a remarkable field research event took place at the Vjosa river in Albania in mid-June. Results will be published in the latest issue of the GEO magazine, which will be available on August 22.

Vjosa Biodiversity Days: SCIENTIFIC REPORT

Between June 13th-15th, the Geo Days of Biodiversity took place at the Vjosa River in Albania. Of the more than 400 species identified, ten percent are classified as threatened, rare or endemic, many of which are protected by international conventions according to IUCN and the Albanian Red List.

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