In April Guardians of Rivers team visited several activists for rivers in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Kosovo and Albania who, in cooperation with local residents, jointly prevented the construction of dozens of small hydropower plants in the region. We have met representatives of various civic initiatives united in the “Coalition for the Protection of the Rivers of Bosnia and Herzegovina”, in Serbia with the organization “Studenac Nova Varoš”, in Kosovo with nature conservationists who oppose hydropower plants on their rivers, and in Albania with activists who fight against the dam Skavica, which would flood the entire region and drive tens of thousands of people from their homes. Corrupt local politicians sell Balkan nature to foreign corporations, which make construction interventions that would never be allowed in their home countries.

Along the way, we have also noticed great demographic devastation, as many young people have moved away. Some areas are extremely vulnerable when foreign companies or domestic investors come there, who, with the support of corrupt politicians, want to take over water resources and put
even the smallest rivers into pipes and build small hydroelectric power plants to make more profit. In many places they have unfortunately, succeeded. Destructive interventions in rivers, which are literally killing them, often take place without obtaining the appropriate permits and without considering opinion of the local community.

On the other hand, more and more local groups, initiatives, societies and residents are active in the Balkans, fighting for the protection of rivers on local, regional, national and international levels. Wherever people have resisted destructive interventions with their own bodies, campaigns and legal means, they have achieved victories and are marching towards new ones together (among them the Bosnian initiatives “Let me flow”, which protected the river Neretvica from 15 small hydroelectric plants, and “The Brave Women of Krušica”, who protested on the bridge for 500 days to prevent the destruction of the local river).

The Guardians of the Rivers project will join efforts to raise awareness and connect with the exhibition’s journey through the Balkans and it’s expansion, so that it will eventually include guardians from the entire region.