The briefing kit highlights key examples of policies, regulations and laws that reflect these WCD recommendations and references specific projects that demonstrate them in action. [IRN brief]. URL: [http://www.internationalrivers.org/files/WCDbriefingkit_0.pdf].

The world’s biggest carbon offset market, the Clean Development Mechanism, is a global shell game that is increasing greenhouse gas emissions behind the guise of promoting sustainable development. It is handing out billions of dollars to chemical companies and the developers of...

With 11 large hydropower dams proposed to block the Lower Mekong River’s mainstream, the future of the river lies at a crossroads. To inform decision-making, in October 2010, the Mekong River Commission (MRC) published a Strategic Environment Assessment (SEA) report that offers a critical...

P roponents of large dams, hoping to capitalize on concern for climate change, are promoting a major expansion of large dams in developing countries. Yet large dams are highly vulnerable to climate change, which is changing rivers in ways we cannot predict. At the same time, healthy rivers are...

The June issue of World Rivers Review is overflowing with ideas on on how to maintain healthy flows in rivers, for their health and our own. If a river's flow is its heartbeat, then we humans have become the heart disease of the world's rivers. The articles in this issue look at three ways to...

International Rivers strongly supports policy measures that can promote a rapid expansion of renewable energy sources. But these measures need to be based on a holistic understanding of sustainability. Large hydropower projects are not a renewable source of energy, can produce significant...

The purpose of this guide is to support groups addressing the impacts of dams built by Chinese companies and financiers. The guide is intended for use by non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and individuals working with communities affected by these dams. It describes how Chinese companies and...

The Mekong is under threat. The governments of Cambodia, Laos, and Thailand are considering plans to build eleven big hydropower dams on the Mekong River’s lower mainstream. If built, these dams would harm the river’s ecology and block the major fish migrations that feed and...

This report studies the ongoing resettlement for the middle route of the South-North Water Transfer Project at Danjiangkou in Hubei Province, China. The Water Transfer Project is China’s biggest water project since the completion of the Three Gorges Dam. The relocation of 330,000 people...

Chinese hydropower companies and banks are now the largest dam builders in the world. Chinese banks have stepped in to fill the gap left by traditional dam funders such as the World Bank. The Chinese government sees its hydropower companies’ global ambitions as playing a...