In December 2025, the Bern Convention Standing Committee met in Strasbourg to address critical conservation disputes across the Balkans. Key reviews focused on hydropower developments in Mavrovo National Park (North Macedonia) and along the Neretva River (Bosnia and Herzegovina), alongside the construction of Vlora airport in Albania’s Vjosa Delta.

Join us for this critical conversation about the potential and challenges of granting legal rights to rivers in Europe.

There are things one cannot believe because they are so incomprehensible, so beyond words. Toni Vorauer is dead; he passed away completely unexpectedly after a short illness on November 25. We mourn a friend, a colleague. Toni was a conservationist, someone who dedicated himself especially to rivers and bats.

A coalition of international and Bosnian scientists, together with leading environmental NGOs, reveal evidence linking the mass mortality of fish and other aquatic life on the affected stretch of the upper Neretva on September 12, 2025, to operational practices at the Ulog Hydropower Plant.

Blue Heart partner Polekol has submitted an official letter to the UNESCO World Heritage Centre, warning of escalating pressures that threaten to irreversibly damage one of Serbia's most valuable cultural and natural heritage sites: the Studenica River basin.

The Montenegrin Ministry of Environment, together with EuroNatur and its Montenegrin partner organisations CZIP and CDE-MES, has signed a memorandum of understanding to improve the protection of the Morača.

During the summer of 2025, photographer Bruno D'Amicis was tasked with capturing all the unique aspects that make Komarnica Canyon in Montenegro special. His expedition there reminds us of the many reasons this place is worth protecting.

In September 2025, Vjosa River was officially recognised as a UNESCO "Man and the Biosphere" (MAB) Reserve, during the World Congress of Biosphere Reserves in China. While it brings international visibility, it also comes with expectations for rigorous follow-up and effective management.

The Transboundary River Forum opened dialogue between institutions, civil society organisations, and, most importantly, gave a voice to local communities to actively participate in decision-making for the management of their rivers. At the heart of the Forum lay a shared commitment: the creation of Europe’s first Transboundary Wild River Park, Aoos/Vjosa.

A devastating ecological disaster has struck the upper Neretva River on September 12. Just downstream of the newly built Ulog hydropower plant, local fishermen discovered a 7-kilometer stretch of river filled with dead fish.