The Fish and the dam that brought it to extinction

Gezhouba Dam

Last year we placed these two pictures on the back cover of the Heritage Dammed report to UNESCO to illustrate the role of dams in mass extinction of freshwater biodiversity. We suggested that scientists will wait for 50 year before declaring the paddlefish extinct. We were wrong, by 49.5 years. Here is the article by Lily Katzman of Smithsonian Magazine:

China’s Yangtze River, the world’s third longest river, is home to 378 known species of fish. But the Chinese paddlefish, …

As the RwB is still cautiously calculating what else could be done by owners and officials in futile attempts to revive hopeless project, many allies have published epitaphs on Amazar Pulp Mill. Famous former Mayor of Mogocha District and now democratic activist Dmitry Pliukhin, who invited the RwB to assess the project us in 2013, summarized losses for local community caused by the 15 years of pulp-mill construction. Greenpeace Russia published “The End of the Amazar Mill” with links to 13 other articles it has …

Nice Victory of the Common Sense

After all our efforts to inform Hong Kong Stock Exchange about undisclosed risks of Amazar Pulp and Saw Mill (“Polyarnaya” Project) we got the final answer from the potential investor: “The Company hereby announces that in light of the potential risks in relation to the Project as disclosed in the announcement of the Company dated 4 November 2019, the Board has decided not to proceed with the Project and to terminate the Operation and Management …

The Dead End

Opinion by Paul Hockenos(CNN)

Climate change is already wreaking
lethal havoc on the world of flora and fauna.

So, all hands on deck to save the
planet, right? We’re behind in the chase and need all the clean energy
resources we can muster to hit the 2015 Paris summit goals and curb global
warming, right?

Actually, no. All renewable energy
sources are neither equal nor welcome. Just because an energy source is zero or
low emissions doesn’t mean that it’s intrinsically
good for the environment — just look at nuclear power, which many
countries (rightly) deem much too …

Orkhon river polluted by gold mining (UMMRL August 2019)

Since May 2019 Onggi river movement, jointly with United Movements for Mongolian Rivers and Lakes (UMMRL) has restarted a legal fight to enforce the Law with Long Name( a law to protect headwaters of rivers, protected zones of water reservoirs and forested areas) passed in July 2009 by Mongolian parliament under decisive pressure from civil society. By drafting and pushing through the Law the UMMRL could succeed in creating a legal background for cancelling and revoking 1782 mining licenses, which includes 391 …

Disclaimer: This is Amur River between Russia and China, not in Chile

We got this Christmas card from our friends in the Americas and happy to share it with you as New Year gift! Our friends managed to publish this card in the New York Times and, besides spectacular free -flowing rivers, it features our report “HERITAGE DAMMED“.

Have fun , protect our rivers!!! Yours, RwB

The rivers of Chilean Patagonia cascade from snow-capped mountains through sheer rock facades and rolling hills, radiating bright turquoise, deep blues and vivid greens. …