+++ Impacts of hydropower projects for nature, people and coastal region to be calculated +++ The University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna (BOKU), together with the Polytechnic University of Tirana, have started an assessment of the sediment transport in the Vjosa river in Albania. They are measuring the amount of gravel, sand and fine sediments the river transports into the Mediterranean Sea each year.

The outdoor outfitter Patagonia is not only supporting our anti-dam campaign, but is also helping to demystify hydro as green and renewable source of energy in general. For this purpose, they have just launched the new website "The dam truth".

+++ Multilateral development banks have supported no fewer than 82 hydropower projects across southeast Europe, including in protected areas, according to a study by CEE Bankwatch Network released today +++

Despite all opposition, the hydropower project Medna on the Sana river in Bosnia and Herzegovina is about to be opened. This marks the beginning of the end of this extraordinary and valuable river. The destruction of the Sana – one of the last remaining rivers with healthy Huchen populations – is carried out by Austrian-German company Kelag. Our Blue Heart partners in BiH – Center for Environment – have been fighting this project from the start.

Like many others of Europe's last free-flowing rivers in the Balkan region, the Una is in permanent danger of being destroyed by a series of hydro dams. It is one of the few last rivers in the world with a healthy, wild Hucho population and an amazing fishery. For Bosnian guide Anes Halkic, the Una is not just a river. It is his life. Watch the trailer!

The Sava is one of the most interesting and complex rivers in Europe and the longest river in Slovenia. 12 hydropower projects are planned on the Sava in Slovenia alone. A new local initiative is taking action against the planned HPP Mokrice. “NE JEZimo SAVE  - Stop HPP Mokrice” stands up against the irreversible destruction of the river at their doorstep.

Connecting Fish, Rivers and People! The World Fish Migration Day (WFMD) is an annual global-local event to create awareness for the importance of open rivers and migratory fish. The next World Fish Migration Day is on April 21, 2018. Will you participate? Register your event! Also find the video and brochure.

Nominated for World Heritage Site status, Lonjsko Polje in Croatia is a 50 000 hectares stretch of floodplain in the Posavina region, between the Sava River and Mt Moslavačka Gora. Situated along Lonja River, a Sava tributary that gives the park its name, this huge retention basin is famed for the diversity of its flora and fauna. Watch this video portraying the beauty and diversity of the Lonjsko Polje:

Albanian filmmaker Artan Rama from “Elementi i pestë“ accompanied our scientists on an Vjosa expedition in April 2017 and filmed a documentary about the planned destruction of Europe’s last big wild river. It is about the uniqueness of the ecosystem Vjosa, about affected residents, as well as about the court decision in favour of a free-flowing Vjosa. Enjoy!

Within the context of the Blue Heart of Europe campaign, the NGO Bankwatch visited eight recently constructed small hydropower plants in Albania, Macedonia and Croatia. All of them were financed by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the European Investment Bank (EIB). Their findings are published in this report. If you always wanted to know whether small is actually beautiful when it comes to hydropower, find out the truth in this study: Broken Rivers