Between 18 and 20 January 2023, the annual meeting of the Living Lakes Network Germany and the Lakes Conference took place in Berlin, which had not been held for several years due to the pandemic.

The Living Rivers Foundation, Global Nature Fund (GNF), the GRÜNE LIGA and Living Lakes Germany were pleased to be able to bring together over 120 participants over three days.

Open letter: Counting on new hydropower to accelerate Renewable Energy deployment in Europe is irresponsible. 

The EEB (European Environmental Bureau), Bird Life International, the EEA (the European Anglers Alliance), Wetlands International and WWF have published an open letter, this Monday 6 February 2023, asking for more regulations of hydropower development. The open letter is signed by more than 100 NGOs across Europe.

Among others, we ask for:

• At least retain the new article 29b on sustainability criteria for hydropower proposed by the European Parliament (RED III), as it recognises that hydropower has direct impacts on freshwater ecosystems which must be mitigated. 
• Ask Member States to exclude new hydropower plants from go-to areas (RED IV), as the Council’s general approach from 21 December on REPowerEU, which only gives Member States the option to exclude new hydropower plants from go-to areas, does not go far enough. 

Discover the entire open letter of the European NGOs here (in English): Open letter: Counting on new hydropower to accelerate Renewable Energy deployment in Europe is irresponsible. 

In 2023, a river film festival is to take place on the Main for the very first time. And not just in one city, but in several cinemas along the course of the river from its source to its mouth. In this way, it will become clear that the Main River connects people over 500 km and is our common responsibility.

The 1st Main FlussFilmFest will be organised in March 2023 by Flussparadies Franken e.V. and Netzwerk Main in cooperation with the Living Rivers Foundation and other partners. It is sponsored by the Bavarian State Ministry of Finance and Home Affairs. The opening will take place on 14 March, the International Day of Action against Dams and for Rivers, Water and Life (World Dam Day) in Bayreuth. The final event will be a matinee in Frankfurt am Main on 26 March. An international selection of environmental and outdoor short films will be shown.

The trailer of the Main Flussfilmfest 2023 is available here: www.living-rivers.eu/en/events-1/1st-main-riverfilmfest

The events will take place on:

• Tuesday, 14 March at franz & gloria– Bayreuth
• Wednesday, 15 March at Neuen Filmbühne– Lichtenfels
• Friday, 17 March at Odeon/Lichtspiel– Bamberg
• Friday, 17 March at Roxy– Kitzingen
• Saturday, 18 March at Central im Bürgerbräu– Würzburg
• Saturday, 18 March at Film-Photo-Ton Museum Huttenschloss - Gemünden a.Main
• Sunday, 19 March at Capitol Kino– Zeil a. Main
• Sunday, 19 March at KuK – Kino & Kneipe– Schweinfurt
• Sunday, 19 March at Burg-Lichtspiele - Karlstadt
• Monday, 20 March at Capitol Kino– Zeil a. Main
• Thursday, 23 March at Movie im Luitpoldhaus– Marktheidenfeld
• Thursday, 23 March at Filmklubb– Offenbach
• Thursday, 23 March at Schloß-Theater - Miltenberg
• Saturday, 25 March at Casino Filmtheater– Aschaffenburg
• Sunday, 26 March at Harmonie– Frankfurt a. Main 

Let's celebrate free rivers, clean water and freshwater life! More about the programmes and venues coming soon on : https://www.riverfilmfest.eu and www.mainflussfilmfest.de
and: https://www.facebook.com/Maininitiative/
and: https://www.instagram.com/netzwerk.main/?hl=de>

Become a river rescue activist:in - WWF Competition

Our rivers are sick! They are dyked, canalised, dammed and diverted - and thus can no longer fulfil their ecological functions.

The alarming condition of the rivers is caused, among other things, by countless barriers that prevent the transport of nutrients and "river construction material" and interrupt the vital migratory movements of many organisms. Many of these blockades are decades old and have long since fallen into disuse. Together with you, we want to remove these unnecessary barriers and allow the rivers to flow freely again.

The competition

With funds from the German Postcode Lottery, we are supporting three deconstructions of transverse structures throughout Germany as part of the "Living Rivers" project in 2023 and 2024. We will provide up to 30,000 euros for each restoration.

How can you access these funds? It's very simple!

All information can be found here: www.wwf.de/themen-projekte/projektregionen/fluesse-bayern/dam-removal/werden-sie-flussbefreier

You can watch the trailer of the competition here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfpAe2LHSKw

Embellished groundwater model may jeopardise stability of planned opencast mining lakes

Cottbus, 30.01.2023. In a comprehensive statement, the environmental network GRÜNE LIGA has criticised the plans of the opencast mine operator LEAG to continue pumping out groundwater in the Jänschwalde opencast mine until 2044. The GRÜNE LIGA sees the stability of the planned opencast mining lakes at risk because LEAG's application ignores the increasing water shortage in Lusatia.
"The consequences of open-cast mining are being made up with fictitious amounts of water. LEAG's plan only works if there are no droughts and no increasing evaporation until 2100. Relying on this could cost the region dearly: If the planned water levels of the opencast lakes are not reached, the stability of the banks at Heinersbrück, Jänschwalde and Taubendorf will be in danger," explains René Schuster from the Green League's Federal Lignite Contact Point, who prepared the statement.
The GRÜNE LIGA also sees LEAG's request for permission under water law as contradictory to the official justification for groundwater extraction. Schuster comments:
"LEAG wants to pump out significantly more than is necessary for the safety of the mine, apparently in order to evaporate more water in the cooling towers of the Jänschwalde power plant. The aim is to burn as much coal as possible from the Welzow, Nochten and Reichwalde opencast mines at the expense of groundwater resources."

At a launch event organised by the GRÜNE LIGA Berlin, the Berlin State Working Group for Nature Conservation (BLN), BUND Berlin, GRÜNE LIGA Berlin, Museum für Naturkunde Berlin, NABU Berlin and a tip:tap founded the Water Network Berlin today. The civil society network sets unprecedented goals until 2026 to advance the urgent improvement of watercourses, lakes and groundwater in the city.

The water network is the answer to the growing water and biodiversity crisis in Berlin: all the running and still waters studied are blocked, polluted or drying up. Over 50% of them are in an ecologically unsatisfactory to poor condition. "We have joined forces to make water protection a priority in Berlin and to ensure that visible progress is made citywide," says Manfred Schubert, Managing Director of BLN, which is supporting the project.