By: Deborah Moore, International Rivers Board Member Darryl Knudsen, Executive Director Michael Simon, former Senior Director of Strategy This article was originally featured on Truthout There’s some good news amid the grim global pandemic: At long last, the world’s largest dam removal is finally happening. The landmark agreement, which was finalized in November 2020 between farmers, tribes and…
Read MoreInternational Rivers stands in solidarity with the people affected by the 2021 Uttarakhand disaster
International Rivers expresses our sorrow and regret over the tragic loss of life and destruction in a disastrous flash flood affecting the Chamoli district and other parts of India’s Uttarakhand state on 7 February 2021. A wall of water and debris swept through the Himalayan valley and overtopped two hydropower dams, leaving at least 175…
Read MorePRESS RELEASE | Coalition Submits Amicus Brief in Nangaritza Case Calling for a Bold Application of the Rights of Nature in Ecuador
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: February 2, 2021 Contacts: Constanza Prieto Figelist (cpfigelist@earthlaw.org, +1-202-621-3877) Grant Wilson (gwilson@earthlaw.org, +1-510-566-1063) QUITO, ECUADOR—This week, a coalition of forest experts, river protectors, and law professors submitted an amicus brief to Ecuador’s Constitutional Court calling for a robust application of the “Rights of Nature” to protect the Upper Nangaritza River Basin Protected Forest…
Read MoreBook Review | Rivers and Sustainable Development: Alternative approaches and their implications (Islam, 2020)
By Darryl Knudsen, International Rivers Executive Director Professor S. Nazrul Islam’s latest book Rivers and Sustainable Development: Alternative approaches and their implications (2020) provides a timely and compelling case for protecting rivers through an “Ecological and Open policy approach” as the pathway towards achieving sustainable development. Islam provides robust global case studies while keeping the…
Read More2020 Year in Review: Building a new paradigm for our rivers
At the end of a difficult year, I encourage us all to meditate and reflect on rivers, which endlessly flow, which cleanse and renew, and which nourish and sustain life for us all. From the Mekong region to the Amazon and Patagonia, authoritarian regimes and profit-hungry corporations have been using the pandemic as cover to…
Read MoreRiver Poems By Poet Laureate Robert Hass
Poet Laureate Robert Hass is joining us live on December 16 at 5pm pacific for our 2020 end of the year event “Rivers Unite Us” for a live reading. A RIVER from “The State of the Planet” The people who live in Tena, on the Napo River, Say that the black, viscous stuff that pools in…
Read MorePRESS RELEASE | Report: Stronger river protections vital to a green, just recovery
Finds spate of new hydropower projects to be anything but “sustainable,” calls for an immediate moratorium Charts energy solutions that deliver sustainable jobs, better boost economies, reduce emissions, protect biodiversity Comes on the heels of an announcement that the world’s largest dam removal will proceed More than 225 organizations from 60 countries have signed a…
Read MoreRios Saudáveis para uma Recuperação Verde e Justa: Um chamado global para proteger rios e direitos de comunidades
No 20º aniversário do histórico Relatório da Comissão Mundial de Barragens , um novo relatório da International Rivers and Rivers without Boundaries traça um curso alternativo para o desenvolvimento da energia na pós-pandemia que se contrasta com tentativas de reativar a indústria de barragens hidrelétricas, atualmente em declinio. Conforme detalhado no relatório “Rivers for Recovery: Protecting Rivers and Rights as Essential for…
Read MorePRESS RELEASE | Coalition Submits Amicus Brief Calling for Enforcement of the Rights of the Piatúa River and Indigenous Rights in Ecuador
Contacts: Constanza Prieto Figelist (cpfigelist@earthlaw.org, 202-621-3877) Monti Aguirre (monti@internationalrivers.org, 707-591-1220) QUITO, ECUADOR—On November 26, a coalition of civil society organizations and law professors submitted an amicus brief to Ecuador’s Constitutional Court calling for the protection of the Piatúa River based on the Rights of Nature and Indigenous rights. The Piatúa River is under threat from…
Read MorePRESS RELEASE | “Rights of Nature: Landmarks for the construction of a General Theory” Book Launch
By: Anna Maria Cárcamo, Legal Advisor Latin America and the Brazilian National Articulation for the Rights of Nature – Mother Earth Português translation below | Tradução de português abaixo Rights of Nature is a global movement which proposes a profound change in legal frameworks and society as a whole, from an anthropocentric to an ecocentric…
Read MoreJoint Statement | Klamath River Dam Removal Back on Track
By: Darryl Knudsen, Executive Director & Bruce Shoemaker, Klamath project Liason The struggle of the diverse and broad coalition of tribes and others who value the fundamental importance of a healthy and free-flowing Klamath cleared a daunting and important hurdle today with the announcement by PacifiCorp, the States of California and Oregon, the tribes and…
Read More