Dams threatening Lake Baikal and five other iconic areas are featured in a new report by Friends of the Earth US “World Heritage Forever? How Banks Can Protect the World’s Most Iconic Cultural and Natural Sites”.

Baikal Seal

The report is examining how the international banking sector lacks strong policies and practices to protect World Heritage and other internationally recognized sites. Drawing on six case studies, the report calls on financial institutions to adopt the Banks and Biodiversity No Go policy, which …

Given tragic situation with river ecosystem protection  in the realm of the World Heritage Convention,  we want to bring to attention of Your delegations a concise brief detailing our findings and recommendations. We hope that Your Country will be able to promote strengthening freshwater ecosystem conservation. Rivers without Boundaries Coalition would be happy to explore opportunities to assist Your country’s efforts to protect rivers under this convention. See Part I Heritage Dammed Trends. See Part II CSOs’ Intervention. Part III – Recommendations – below (and in original …

Intervention
on item 7 at the 44th Session of the World Heritage Committee: 

On Rivers and
Increasing Dam Damage.

By Rivers without Boundaries International Coalition, International Rivers, World Heritage Watch, SOSORINOCO, Yayasan HAkA, Citizen Initiative Ohrid SOS, Wilderness Society – Tasmania.

Robert Culer. An Allegory of Sustainable Development.

Thank you for allowing us to speak, Mr.
Chairman!

We value development of
“no go” policies, but feel extreme underappreciated urgency for protection of
freshwater ecosystems.

Rivers occupy just 1% of
terrestrial Earth surface, but natural and cultural systems of remaining 99%
heavily depend on healthy freshwater bodies and their ecosystem services. Due
to increasing …

Sharp rise in negative impacts on World Heritage sites, occurring despite limitations of COVID, is in particularly obvious for properties affected by dams and other water infrastructure. This is the first part of a brief presented to World Heritage Convention Committee today by the RwB.

Here: Part I Heritage Dammed Trends. See Part II CSOs’ Intervention. See Part III – Recommendations (and in original “Heritage Dammed” Report.)

COVID lockdowns have not stopped river dammng

In 2019 the RwB and World Heritage Watch  presented at the
43rd Committee Session in Baku the …

A baby-sturgeon caught in Rioni River (Photo by Flora and Fauna International)

Today the World Heritage Committee inscribed the Colchic Rainforests and Wetlands, Georgia, on the World Heritage List as a unique ecosystem hosting outstanding biodiversity.

The Decision states that the Colchic Rainforests and Wetlands are relict forests, which have survived the glacial cycles of the ice age. The peatlands of the Colchis mire region, which are closely interlinked with lowland Colchic rainforests, also reflect the mild and extremely humid conditions there. These allow for the existence of percolation bogs, the …

Irkutsk Hydro inside the City of Irkutsk, powerplant owned by the En+Group, nowadays being used to convert Lake Baikal into flood-control reservoir to safeguard from flooding illegally built facilities in the Angara River floodplain

On July 23 the 44th Session of the World Heritage Committee, held at Fuzhou in China, unanimously approved (without discussion) a new Decision on the Lake Baikal – the most troubled property of the Russian Federation. As an observer at the Session, Eugene Simonov, Coordinator of the Rivers without Boundaries …