Page 26 - EarthHeroes

It was during a kayaking trip to Chile in 2014 that Rok was inspired to
save rivers. There he met Benny Webb, an Australian kayaker who was campaigning against plans to build five dams in the Marañón River, source
of the mighty Amazon River, in Peru. Benny, in turn, had been inspired by a Slovenian woman, Anka Makovec, who had taken part in a protest in Tasmania in the early 1980s that helped to save the Franklin River. Rok planned to travel to Peru in 2015 to help Benny, but whilst researching that trip, he discovered that he was urgently needed much closer to home. The wild rivers of the Balkans were under threat from dams.
Hydroelectric dams use the power of moving water as a source of renewable energy. The water is collected in a reservoir
and released in a controlled way to spin the blades of a turbine, which creates electricity. But they are not always
as environmentally friendly as is often believed. To build a dam, a valley is flooded to create a reservoir, destroying the plants and animals that live there.
Families who have lived in the valley for generations are forced to move from their villages, losing their homes, land and often their livelihoods. And the flooded areas actually contribute to climate change, as the drowned trees, grass and vegetation decompose and release the greenhouse gases methane and carbon dioxide. This is an especially big issue
in tropical regions. Meanwhile, downstream of the dam, the dramatically varying water levels – high when the water is released and very low when it is held back – kill off fish and other river life, which in turn affects wildlife like birds and otters, as well as surrounding habitats. Smaller dams divert rivers into pipes, leaving long stretches of dry riverbed, with similarly damaging effects.
With its ancient forests, beautiful mountains, and wildlife such as bears, boars, wolves and lynx, the Balkans is seen as the wild heart of Europe. The continent’s last wild rivers, still in a natural state and unchanged for thousands of years, flow through
the region and much of the animal life within them can be
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