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Dam Cascades Threaten Biological and Cultural DiversityFrom its headwaters in the Tibetan Plateau to its estuary in Burma, the Salween River supports over ten million people. For many decades, it was the longest free-flowing river in Southeast Asia. It sustains rich fisheries and farmlands central to the lives of many indigenous communities living along its banks. However, large dam cascades in China and Burma are being planned in complete secrecy, with no participation from affected communities and no analysis of the cumulative impacts or seismic risks of these projects.The Salween River, kno

The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) is meant to catalyze climate-friendly and sustainable projects in low-income countries. Instead, it's provided massive subsidies to hydropower developers while increasing greenhouse gas emissions. Through deception and abuse of the system, at least two-thirds of all CDM projects are likely not additional, and more are slipping in each year. Despite attempts at reform, the CDM continues to approve egregious hydropower projects while delaying any improvements. In December 2011, an EU-commissioned report recommended the European Union consider banning credit

Even under the most optimistic scenarios of coordinated global action to cut climate pollution, we face an era of rapid and accelerating climate change. Dams and other river infrastructure projects have been, and in most cases still are, designed based on the now obsolete assumption that future river flow patterns will be like those of the past. In reality, river flows will change significantly as temperatures increase, glaciers and snow packs melt, and rain and snow fall patterns are drastically altered.

We are collecting our best photos of the fight for healthy rivers and human rights on Flickr. We hope you enjoy them and share your favorites with your own networks. Our photos cover protests, indigenous communities, destructive projects and beautiful rivers all over the globe. If you have a photo of your river, your event, your community, or a recent trip to a dam-threatened ecosystem that you would like us to post, please email it to us, along with photo details (photographer, location, date, event).

Saves Falls Sacred to Indigenous PeoplesTeles Pires construction site A federal judge in Brazil has suspended the construction license of the Teles Pires hydroelectric dam in the Brazilian Amazon, citing violations of the rights of the Kayabi, Apiaká and Mundurucu indigenous peoples whose livelihoods are seriously threatened by the project. Read the full Press Release Read a blog about the campaign to protect the Tapajós Basin from destructive dams The dam with an estimated installed capacity of 1,820 MW has been under construction since August 2011 on the Teles Pires River, a major tribu

Hydrodependency in Africa: Risky Business Africa has been deemed “the continent most vulnerable to the impacts of projected climate change” by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The continent has one of the most volatile water systems on the planet, and its rivers routinely experience wild swings in flow. For example, variation in the Zambezi River is estimated to be ten times higher than that of most European rivers. This situation will only worsen with climate change. Despite this hydrological risk, thousands of megawatts of hydropower are being proposed for Africa's r

From March 12-17th, 2012, the world's governments, corporations, and financiers convened at the Sixth World Water Forum (WWF6) in Marseille, France, to present "solutions" to the world's water, energy, and food challenges. Yet, many of the solutions proposed will do more to protect business-as-usual interests than to spark innovative approaches to tackling our most pressing water-related problems. Held once every three years, the World Water Forum is the largest privately organized gathering of water officials in the world. It is developed and managed by the World Water Council, a consortium

Ethiopian Wildlife Conservation Authority, Existing Challenges: Plantation Development versus Wildlife Conservation in the Omo-Tama-Mago Complex, September 2011

Schematic of the Grand Inga The Grand Inga is the world’s largest proposed hydropower scheme. It is the centerpiece of a grand vision to develop a continent-wide power system. The Grand Inga mega-project is a priority project for a number of Africa development organizations, including the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC), East African Power Pool (EAPP) and ESKOM, Africa’s largest power utility, among others. The proposed dam is the fourth and largest of a series of dams that have been built or are proposed for the lowe