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.
"LIFE IS A RIVER" is a new song from the legendary Darko Rundek, celebrating the wild rivers of the Balkans.
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.
Yesterday, September 24 2025, the Austrian freshwater ecologist Prof. Dr. Fritz Schiemer, Chair of Riverwatch, has been awarded the Wolfgang Staab Nature Conservation Award 2025, endowed with €20,000, by the Schweisfurth Stiftung. The prize recognizes his exceptional scientific and political commitment to protecting the Vjosa River in Albania
National Park status should safeguard the Vjosa. Ask the Albanian government to continue their commitment to this wild place, and ensure the Vjosa Wild River National Park is protected today, tomorrow, and forever.
Two years after its landmark designation in March 2023 as Europe’s first Wild River National Park, the Vjosa River is under continuous pressure from extractive industries, infrastructure expansion, and mismanaged development, putting the park’s ecological integrity and its global conservation value at risk.
The lack of required ecological flow from a hydropower dam in the Greek section of the Aoos/Vjosa River is endangering a unique and fragile ecosystem. A new scientific study underscores the urgent need to establish a minimum flow regime to restore the river’s ecological functions and safeguard its rich biodiversity.
The Serbian organisation for political ecology, Polekol, has submitted a complaint to the Bern Convention, warning that the construction of the small hydroelectric power plant Gradina on the Studenica River will jeopardise protected habitats and species of international significance.
Over a decade after the first systematic data collection on hydropower development in the Balkans, the latest Balkan Hydropower Update 2024 reveals a mixed reality.
The Ministry of Spatial Planning, Civil Engineering, and Ecology of the Republic of Srpska has officially rejected the Environmental Impact Study for the "Janjina J-1" small hydropower plant, stopping the project in its tracks!
