International Rivers
 | |
| Founded | 1985 Berkeley, California, USA |
|---|---|
| Type | Non-Profit |
| Focus | Dams, Rivers |
| Location | |
Area served | Worldwide |
| Method | Advocacy, Education, Research |
Key people |
Patrick McCully, Executive Director Marcia McNally, Co-chair Deborah Moore, Co-chair |
Revenue | $2,245,344[1] (2007) |
| Slogan | People, Water, Life |
| Website | internationalrivers.org |
International Rivers is a non-profit, non-governmental, environmental and human rights organization based in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1985 by a host of social and environmental activists, International Rivers works with a global network of policy and financial analysts, scientists, journalists, development specialists, local citizens and volunteers to address destructive dams and their legacies in over 60 countries.
In addition to the United States, International Rivers has staff in Cameroon, Thailand, Brazil and India. International Rivers staff has expertise in a broad range of issues and uses research, education and advocacy to achieve the organization's mission.
About
International Rivers' stated aims are to protect rivers and defend the rights of communities that depend on them. It is active against the development model with which dams are associated, which International Rivers holds to be unsustainable. It promotes alternative solutions for meeting water, energy and flood-management needs. The organization is dedicated to giving dam-affected people the tools to participate in the development of local lands in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
By facilitating international grassroots organizing and informed participation, International Rivers seeks to change the terms of the debate over river development. The group works with its numerous partners to advocate for social reparations, ecological restoration and decommissioning of existing dams. International Rivers states that it works to clarify the traditionally top-down decision-making of large infrastructure projects. It also argues against industry's presentation of hydropower regards climate change, making clear that reservoirs often produce greenhouse gas emissions that further impact on the environment.[2]
Programs
International Rivers has undertaken a two-pronged approach to analyzing and promoting viable water and energy solutions. Combining its efforts to change global policy with campaigning on specific key projects, International Rivers simultaneously addresses the root causes and localized consequences of destructive dam development. Their campaigns throughout Africa (directed by Rudo Angela Sanyanga), China (directed by Grace Mang), Latin America (coordinated by Monti Aguirre), South Asia (directed by Samir Mehta) and Southeast Asia (directed by Ame Trandem) focus on the intersection of dams and climate change, reforming the policies and practices of international financial institutions, and promoting water and energy solutions that recognize human rights and environmental sustainability.[3]
Contributions
Among its accomplishments, International Rivers counts its integral involvement with the formation of the World Commission on Dams as one of its most important contributions. The commission was a global, multi-stakeholder body initiated in 1997 by the World Bank and the World Conservation Union, formed in response to growing opposition to dams. During its two-year lifetime, the WCD conducted the most exhaustive study of dams done to date, ultimately evaluating over 1,000 dams in 79 countries.[4] In its published final report, the WCD concluded that although “dams have made an important and significant contribution to human development, and benefits derived from them have been considerable... in too many cases an unacceptable and often unnecessary price has been paid to secure those benefits, especially in social and environmental terms, by people displaced, by communities downstream, by taxpayers and by the natural environment.”[5]
International Rivers is further proud of the role it has played in supporting dam-affected citizens around the world. Since the organization’s inception, worldwide construction of dams has decreased by half, and universal recognition of the consequences of hydropower continues to increase.
International Rivers publishes a quarterly journal, World Rivers Review, focused on addressing the state of various dams projects, ecosystems and people. They also publish an annual report on a variety of dam-related subjects. Both are typically available for free download from the organization's official website.
See also
References
- ↑ 2007 Annual Report
- ↑ Dams' contributions to greenhouse gas emissions
- ↑ "Staff | International Rivers", International Rivers. Retrieved on 19 January 2014.
- ↑ Framework for understanding the WCD report
- ↑ WCD final report