BRT 5 | JUNE 2021

The Sava River is kind of like the girl next door. You spend your childhood playing together, never really realizing how attractive/mysterious/beautiful and incredible she really is.

This is why the Balkan River Tour 5 crew kayaked the length of their home river, the Sava River in Slovenia.

11 days.  258km of paddling. 1 river.  2 forks.  Sava. From June 1st to June 11th 2021.

During the 11 days on the water the crew explored this stunning river, followed by media crew capturing moving and still images to later be shared with broad public via our new full-feature documentary.

 WHY DOES THE SAVA NEED HELP?
The Sava River is facing a serious threat:

With 9 existing (highly destructive) hydropower plants (HPPs) on the Sava River in Slovenia, there are also plans for as many as 10 new HPPs in Slovenia.

WHAT IS THE MAIN MESSAGE OF BRT5?
No new dams on the Sava. Why?

  • The Sava is an integral part of Europe’s greater freshwater ecosystem, home to Natura 2000 and IUCN Red List species like the Danube salmon (Hucho hucho).
  • The Sava needs better biodiversity protection measures as well as support for sustainable ecotourism and local economy which can produce more revenue than destructive industry.
  • Instead of mass destruction through HPPs, which is often heavily subsidized by tax payer’s money and which is has been proven to enable rampant corruption, we demand from decision-makers and investment institutions to back out from hydro and support cheaper and true green alternatives. What does this mean on the ground? Install solar panels on existing infrastructure, wind turbines on highways and start the transition to a sustainable economy with smaller general power consumption.

THE FOLLOWING WAS ALSO A PART OF THE BALKAN RIVERS TOUR 5:

eDNA RESEARCH
During our kayak descent of the Sava River, the BRT5 paddling crew collected water samples from numerous sites for environmental DNA (eDNA) research. A team of experts from Slovenia, Italy and Austria will use the collected samples to perform genetic analysis. This research will give a detailed insight into fish species occurrence in the Sava and provide a data-based comparison of species diversity in dammed vs. more natural parts of the river. This will be the first eDNA study of the Sava River.

FORMATION OF SLOVENIAN ALLIANCE FOR THE SAVA
BRD crew helped establish The Sava Coalition called Za Savo by inviting NGOs from Slovenia that work in public interest and towards preservation of biodiversity, to join. Together they are forming a united voice and a body that now acts as a counterpart towards commissions on the Sava that currently exist to further exploit Sava River for economic purposes, without taking into consideration biodiversity and wildlife.