Inside the fight for Europe’s first wild river national park in Albania

WHEN you see the deserted development web site, it isn’t exhausting to marvel at what may have been. We floated spherical a bend within the river on our raft and there it was: two colossal synthetic banks beneath scarred hillsides, stranded diggers and cement hoppers.

These are the forlorn stays of the Kalivaç dam undertaking on the Vjosa river in Albania, which has been dubbed “Europe’s final wild river”. If the builders had had their method, this may now be the positioning of a 43-metre-high hydroelectric dam with an unlimited reservoir behind it. As a substitute, in March, the Albanian authorities declared the whole thing of the Vjosa and lots of of its tributaries a wild river nationwide park, the primary (and doubtless final) of its type in Europe – saved in perpetuity from a destiny that has befallen too most of the rivers on this a part of the world.

The Vjosa is particular as a result of it’s solely free-flowing. Except for the stays of the Kalivaç undertaking, there are not any dams, limitations or synthetic banks. It’ll now keep that method. Principally.

Dams generate hydroelectric energy, however are disastrous for biodiversity and different essential ecological items rivers bestow upon us. So the saving of the Vjosa is an enormous win for nature – together with the critically endangered Balkan lynx and European eel – and an inspiration for different river conservation initiatives. Additionally it is a uncommon bit of excellent information towards the backdrop of the surprising state of most of the world’s rivers. However the battle to …