Serious environmental damage is currently taking place in the Vjosa-Narta protected area in Albania. Since the end of April, bulldozers and excavators have been operating in the core area of the protected landscape, clearing coastal forests, removing dunes and cutting new access roads through previously untouched habitats.

163 experts call for an immediate halt to the hydropower project, citing an extremely flawed Environmental Impact Assessment and widespread irreversible ecological damage.

Despite her status as a "nature guardian," Andreja Slameršek has become the target of retaliatory litigation by the energy sector for exposing irregularities in environmental studies of the Mokrice Hydroelectric Power Plant in Slovenia. In response, activists and legal experts have launched a collective front to protect both the Stupčanica River's biodiversity and the right to public participation.

As we celebrate the third anniversary of the Vjosa Wild River National Park, a study released today warns that the "Wild River" is facing an invisible crisis: massive water abstraction.

More river kilometres have been saved! The Ministry of Spatial Planning, Construction, and Ecology of Republika Srpska has officially rejected the Environmental Impact Study for the proposed Nevačka small hydropower plant in the Bosna Basin in Bosnia and Herzegovina. 

On 14 March, International Day of Action for Rivers, the documentary "Komarnica: The Wild That Remains" will premiere. An exclusive pre-screening webinar on 12 March will offer an early look, while a growing petition continues to rally international support for the protection of the Komarnica River.

The first comparable regional assessment in over a decade documents the deterioration of Europe's last wild rivers, with pristine stretches dropping from 30% to 23% since 2012 - a staggering loss of 2,450 river kilometres. Albania’s rivers have deteriorated faster than those of any other Balkan country, largely due to hydropower and river regulation. 

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.