Year: <span>2023</span>

Witch Hunt at Lake Baikal Targets Local Environmental Activists

Officials in Russia’s Irkutsk region in southeastern Siberia have publicly denounced activists seeking to block a controversial bill that would ease logging restrictions along the shores of Lake Baikal. In an open letter, 34 regional officials, including six mayors, accused environmental activists of waging a cyberbullying campaign and inciting “inter-social …

Norwegian Government Pension Fund Global – world’s top sovereign fund latest to cut ties with dam in orangutan habitat

by Hans Nicholas Jong, Mongabay The RwB Coalition has always closely followed hydropower development in Indonesia, participated in CSO-led assessments, co-sponsored appeals to major international finance institutions. The desision of Norvegian Pension fund is a very important testimony and precedent. We republish this exellent account by Mongabay. JAKARTA — Major …

Is restoring the old Soviet dam the right thing to do?

Tragic wide-spread consequences of the Kakhovka Dam destruction call for innovative revival initiatives to meet needs of people and support restoration of nature. In a short interview on the Euronews, broadcasted in seven languages, Eugene Simonov said: “I as an ecologist, would not support and would not advise to go …

Era of Building Big Dams Draws to a Close

Experts say the world has hit ‘peak dams,’ which conservationists hail as good news for riverine ecosystems By Jacques Leslie | June 27, 2023  https://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/ California’s Oroville Dam, the tallest in the U.S., sustained more than $1 billion in damages in 2017 when its spillway partially collapsed. The rising cost …

Civil Society Calls on Bankers to Take Global Biodiversity Framework Seriously

As exemplified by the continuing extermination of river ecosystems supported by multilateral banks, most international finance institutions are yet to understand that the Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) is awake-up call for the whole concept of “international development assistance” and international investments in general. The RwB Coalition supported an important appeal …

On Kakhovka Dam Destruction

By Oleksii Vasyliuk and Josh Klemm, EU Observer   Kyiv/Washington  Blasting of the Kakhovka Dam shocked the world as the extreme example of weaponization of civilian infrastructure, but it also raised questions about available paths for truly sustainable recovery after the war. This man-made disaster provides opportunities to rethink river …