The Vjosa
Europe's last large wild river becomes the campaign's centrepiece — from threatened dam sites to the world's first Wild River National Park, declared in March 2023.
Part of Riverwatch
11 moments in this segment.
- — The Vjosa — Europe's last wild river. The Vjosa runs roughly 270 km from Greece's Pindus mountains through Albania to the Adriatic, undammed along its main stem — a braided, free-flowing river of a kind that has all but vanished from Europe.
- — The Poçem dam goes to court. Albanian and international scientists and lawyers sue to stop the Poçem dam on the middle Vjosa. A court suspends it — a landmark legal win establishing that the river's ecology must be assessed first.
- — The women of Kruščica guard the bridge. In the village of Kruščica, local women occupy a bridge for over a year to block machinery building two dams on their river — one of the most celebrated acts of resistance of the whole campaign.
- — Patagonia's "Blue Heart" film. Outdoor brand Patagonia releases the documentary "Blue Heart", following the fight for the Balkans' rivers and the people resisting the dams. It carries the campaign to a global audience.
- — The Neretva — emerald river of Bosnia. The Neretva runs an unmistakable emerald-green through Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia. Its wild upper reaches, rich in endemic species, face a cascade of planned hydropower plants.
- — Scientists count the Vjosa's life. An international "science week" surveys the Vjosa and finds more than 1,100 species, including over a thousand animal taxa and two new to science — hard evidence that the river is a biodiversity treasure, not an empty valley to flood.
- — Vjosa declared a Nature Park. Albania designates the Vjosa and its free-flowing tributaries a Nature Park in 2021 — the legal stepping-stone toward full national-park protection, after years of campaigning by RiverWatch, EuroNatur and Albanian partners.
- — Buk Bijela on the Upper Drina. Construction begins on the Buk Bijela hydropower plant on the Drina near the Montenegro border — a project critics say was launched without proper transboundary environmental assessment, threatening the Tara–Drina canyon system.
- — Neretva Science Week. Dozens of scientists from across Europe gather on the upper Neretva to inventory its species before the dams arrive, documenting an exceptional concentration of endemic and undescribed life.
- — Vjosa Wild River National Park. In March 2023 Albania declares the Vjosa Wild River National Park — the first national park in Europe to protect an entire wild river and its tributaries. A model for river conservation worldwide.
- — The Ulog dam on the upper Neretva. The Ulog hydropower plant rises on the upper Neretva despite years of protest, becoming the focus of the campaign's fight to keep the river's wild headwaters intact.
