For many years it has been the secret knowledge of “insiders” – riverine communities, a few NGO representatives, fly fishers, kayakists: the Blue Heart of Europe beats on the Balkan Peninsula. Nowhere else on the continent can one find such a tremendous number and variety of pristine, wild rivers, crystal clear streams, extensive gravel banks, untouched alluvial forests, deep gorges, spectacular waterfalls, and even karstic underground rivers which mysteriously flood the surface during extreme rain fall and snow melt in autumn and spring. What’s more, these rivers are one of the most important hotspots for European biodiversity, especially fish and molluscs, hosting many threatened as well as endemic species. Rare vegetation communities and water depended fauna can be found not only in these very rivers, but also in adjacent alluvial habitats.
However, this unique European treasure is threatened. The rivers of the Balkans are to be dammed on a large scale. More than 570 hydropower plants are projected to be built in the next few years – commonly with support of businesses and loans from inside the European Union and beyond. Not even the most striking and valuable river stretches – even if located inside a national park – are to be spared. The Blue Heart of Europe is at risk of a heart attack.
This whole story is relatively unknown to the public and even to many experts in the fields of ecology and nature conservation. Through our international campaign we want to change this situation.
EU member countries aim to achieve a similar hydromorphological condition for the rest of Europe's rivers in future years through the Water Framework Directive. However, currently, the picture in the rest of Europe is reversed. See below the hydromorphological map of Germany for comparison - a rather typical river situation of European rivers, which results from river regulation, dam construction, navigation, and other hydro-engineering modifications.
Key Areas
In our campaign, we concentrate on three Key Areas that are particularly valuable and thus need to be spared from hydroelectric development at all costs.
The Key Areas were chosen on the basis of the ecological quality and biodiversity of the river stretches (and their adjacent flood plains), as well as on the dimension and ecological impact of the planned hydropower and engineering projects in these areas.
Three local campaign teams, who are familiar with the environmental and cultural particularities of each project area, were established. With the support from the international coordination team composed of Riverwatch and EuroNatur, the local teams work on the ground, addressing the specific needs of the area and fostering the development of grass‐root initiatives.
Our vision for the Key Areas is not only to prevent ecological destruction through hydroelectric and navigational development but to create alternative visions for sustainable development of these areas, such as the designation as national parks. Protection and good management could trigger the development of sustainable nature tourism and add value through the valorization of rural products. Such developments have been experienced before in various national parks on all continents.
The Amazon River, located in northern Brazil, is longest river in the world with 6850 km long from its source at 5600 meters of altitude in Peru to its mouth on Brazilian soil, near Para division with the Amapá .The Amazon River originates at Lake Lauri (aka Lauricocha), located in the Andes of Peru. He follows in the general direction of south-north to Pongo Manseriche, a region where its course follows the west-east route, going to the mouth in the Atlantic.
Right bank
The Javary River, Javari River or Yavarí River .Spanish: Río Yavarí; Portuguese: Rio Javari is a 1,184 km tributary of the Amazon that forms the boundary between Brazil and Peru for more than 800 km
Rio Jutaí: With its source near the region bathed by Ipixuna, a tributary of the Jurua has narrow passages and muddy waters.
Rio Jurua: Born in serro the favors to 453 meters high, is one of the most important afliuentes the Amazon, to be quite voluminous and the most winding of the region. It has 3283 km in length and the width at the mouth in fente Consciousness Island, near Tamaniquá village, ranging from 350-400m. Bathes the cities of Carauari, Jurua, Eirunepé, Foreign Ministry, Ipixuna and Canamari. From its mouth to the river Tarauacá the average width is 140 meters, falling to 100-120 meters in spurts and 80-120 meters in the corners. Your bed can be varied between 8-16 meters in water levels between ebb and flood respectively. Over 1,000 kilometers from its navigable course are in full . During the dry season navigation is limited to 136 miles from its mouth. Its numerous tributaries are navigable itntensamente for much of the year as the summer arise in some shoals that impede traffic.
Madeira River: With 3,240 km, is the most notable tributary of the Amazon, born of the junction of the Mamoré and Guaporé rivers, opposite the waterfall "Wood", formed by large rocks and islands, as well as debris brought by the floods. Can be navigable from its mouth to the St. Anthony's bedside on the border with the states of Amazonas and Mato Grosso.Between the rainy season and the dry river varies quite deep. In the dry season, the river waters that flow into the Amazon, forming beaches along its banks. In this period, in your bed can be sighted the large amount of stones that help form the periodic rapids .
Coincidentally or not with the rainy season , while the river fills with rainwater in the opposite direction to the delta, it is invaded by the waters of the Amazon and rises about 17m, flooding all the waterfalls in your bed to form a water mirror that both invades forests as beaches and covers the entire Amazon plain. At that time, the Madeira river is no longer a simple tributary of the Amazon River and becomes a dependent navigation channel of the "tide" of this confluence. This vast backwater is responsible for the transfer of solid material deposited with the roots of vegetation come to form the great dunes.
Purus River: With equal muddy waters of the Solimões and varying color according to the time of the flood or ebb, the river is born with the name of Pucani at an altitude of 500 m, in Contamana saw that separates it from the Ucayalli river basin. Its main tributaries are the Curiuja and Cujar streams. It's a very extensive river considering it has about 3325 km long.It enters the Amazon River west of the Madeira River, which it parallels as far south as the falls of the latter stream. It runs through a continuous forest at the bottom of the great depression, lying between the Madeira River, which skirts the edge of the Brazilian sandstone plateau, and the Ucayali River, which hugs the base of the Andes. The river forms a small part of the international boundary between Brazil and Peru before it crosses over completely into Peru.
More than 225 species, with estimates of 300 species, of cichlids are found throughout South America. An estimated 75% of these inhabit the mighty Amazon River Basin.
Gold mining is intensifying in southern Peru. Researchers mapped mining-related deforestation along a major river and in a protected reserve. Gold mining often releases mercury into the environment, which can be very harmful for human and ecosystem health.
In the heart of the Peruvian Amazon, a global craving for precious metals has changed life for local communities. As prices remain relatively high and it retains its reputation as a safe investment, the true costs of gold extraction ripple through the rainforests of Peru, affecting everything from fish to birds of prey, and even local human residents. Along the way, trees continue to be felled to make way for mining rigs and makeshift homes that ultimately feed the world’s appetite for the elemental metal.
More than 30,000 artisanal gold miners are estimated to be active in just the Madre de Dios Department of Peru – which is Spanish for “Mother of God.” In March of this year, the Monitoring of the Andean Amazon Project (MAAP) revealed that 1,700 hectares of gold mining-related deforestation occurred in the La Pampa region of the Madre de Dios Department of Peru. Two months later in May, further evidence shows another 850 hectares of deforestation caused by gold mining in the Upper Malinowski River, a little west of La Pampa.
These figures were calculated by MAAP’s unique approach to monitoring deforestation – an analysis of satellite imagery with a specialized software program called CLASLite developed by the Carnegie Institute for Science. By comparing satellite imagery of the same location taken at different periods in time, the MAAP team, consisting of members of the Amazon Conservation Association, is able to carefully calculate actual deforestation levels, without ever needing to set foot in the area itself.
STOP the Belo Monte Dam License!
Although construction has already begun, it's not too late to STOP the Belo Monte Dam! Brazil's environmental agency, IBAMA, was pressured into issuing the first licenses despite many violations of social and environmental protections. Now the agency has one last chance to do the right thing: reject rampant government corruption and in doing so, prevent the flooding of Altamira, which would displace thousands
A cichlid species first collected by Alfred Russell Wallace in the upper Rio Negro in 1852, lost during the transport to England but documented in drawings, is described as Crenicichla monicae on the basis of three specimens collected by the Swedish Amazonas Expedition 1923–1925. Crenicichla monicae is most similar to C. johanna, C. rosemariae, and one undescribed species which are characterized by cycloid scales, distinguishing them from other species of the genus in which most scales are ctenoid. Crenicichla monicae is recorded only from the lower Rio Uaupés and lower Rio Içana, tributaries of the upper Rio Negro, and is sympatric with the similar species C. johanna and C. lenticulata. It is distinguished from all other species of Crenicichla by the color pattern in females, with scattered dark spots on the upper half of the side and on the dorsal and caudal fins. Crenicichla monicae is a member of the C. lugubris species group, characterized by very small scales in a large number along the middle of the side (89–126 scales in E1 row), blunt snout, and particular ontogenetic transformation of color pattern.
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American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists
London Zoo is appealing to fish keepers to try to find a mate for a critically endangered, tropical species.
The Mangarahara cichlid is extinct in the wild but the three in captivity are all male.
The Zoo, which describes the fish as "gorgeously ugly", is hoping to start a conservation programme if a fit female can be found for the captive males.
And with two of the males now 12 years old, the quest is said to be extremely urgent.
I think there's probably a very slim to no chance of this fish surviving
Brian Zimmerman, London Zoo
These cichlids were named after the Mangarahara river in Madagascar where they were first found.
The construction of dams on the river caused the streams they lived in to dry up and the fish is now believed to be extinct in its natural habitat.
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