Words:
Carmen Kuntz
Photos:
Balkan River Defence
(Katja Jemec,
Katja Pokorn,
and Mitja Legat)
White water kayaks as research instruments
Balkan River Defence (BRD) first became known within the international river conservation scene for using whitewater kayaks as a tool for activism. Colourful kayaks either scattered rivers and reservoirs during on-water events or adorned city streets during downtown protests. From Tirana to Ljubljana, Skopje to Podgorica, they grabbed the attention of local, national and global media while simultaneously illustrating to decision-makers that a healthy, free-flowing river is worth more in terms of tourism, agriculture and preservation of rare ecosystems than the inconsistent power a hydro dam produces.
Before that, BRD used kayaks as tools to enjoy rivers and develop relationships with them. After all, the inspiration behind the Slovenian NGO came from a love and respect for rivers, which prompted ex-Olympic rower-turned-whitewater kayaker, Rok Rozman, to start what became the biggest direct river conservation initiative in Europe.
Now, the BRD team is using kayaks as research vessels. Paired with their whitewater knowledge, kayaks provide access to spots scientists and non-whitewater people can’t get to. Through BRD’s annual river conservation action–Balkan Rivers Tour–the team spent the last six years working to change the perception that hydropower is green energy while simultaneously challenging the approaches of modern nature conservation. But in the last two years, the organization has gone through a shift, taking a large step back from protests and activism and instead using their colourful boats to collect data. You see, a whitewater kayak can be a valuable research instrument, especially when paired with a competent paddler with a scientific background.
The Sava River
On June 1, 2021, a biologist, a hunter, a writer, and an engineer (aka four whitewater kayakers) pushed off shore and started an 11-day and 258 kilometres descent of the Sava River in Slovenia. From its dual sources, the paddlers split into two groups, one pair starting on the alpine lake, Lake Bohinj, and the other drifting from the crystal-clear azure underground source Zelenci, near the Italian border. The Sava River flows for almost 1000 kilometres, eventually joining the mighty Danube River in Belgrade, Serbia. But this research team would stop just before the border to Croatia. This Slovenian segment of the river is home to almost the whole BRD crew, but few have ever taken the chance to get to know it.
ENVIRONMENTAL DNA (eDNA)
For the next 11 days, they would see the river from the seat of a kayak. They would sleep on her gravel bars. And would spend every day working together to complete the first continuous waterfowl survey of the Sava River during nesting season (something that would otherwise take a very long time to survey from foot). They would also perform the first complete environmental DNA (eDNA) sampling of the Sava. And, to be sure they could share all the stories and discoveries, the BRD media crew followed along to turn the trip into a feature-length documentary about the river.
Why bother stopping to sample water or constantly scanning for birds? Because politicians have plans to build 10-12 new dams on this deep green river. And the BRD team is dedicated to making sure that doesn’t happen. Gathering data about fish and birds that can later be used as ammunition in the courtroom is one way BRD defends the Sava. And by filming the voyage down the river, they can illustrate that these dams are a disastrous idea – for biodiversity and humans – showing that a river is worth more than just the power it can produce spinning a turbine.
Collecting water samples
The eDNA water sampling aims to provide new information about fish species distribution and presence and quantify the changes a dam makes on a river. The kayakers carried a basic set of sampling tools in their boats and stopped at predetermined locations to collect water samples. Using a water pump powered by a household drill machine, they pushed river water through a special filter that a crew of ichthyofauna specialists would later analyze in the lab for the presence of fish DNA (isolated from particles of skin, scale, and faeces), to get a clear picture about the fish diversity in the threatened and last free-flowing section of the Slovenian Sava.
The Sava is integral to Europe’s greater freshwater ecosystem and home to Natura 2000 and IUCN Red List species. It is the largest tributary (by volume) to Europe’s second-largest river, the Danube. And it is a river that connects four Balkan countries, providing drinking water to major cities and water for agriculture, industry and long-standing traditions and lifestyles. Humans have an impact on rivers, and rivers impact humans. There is no denying this. But paddling under castles, past hundred-year-old stone houses and through villages and towns that rely on the Sava, it is clear that those still connected to the river still have respect for her and that a strong natural, traditional and historical connection exists.
These people depend on the Sava for food production, industry, drinking water and tradition. And they are the ones who will lose their farmland and tourism agencies if these dams are built. They are active members of society, not some off-grid hipsters. They know that spring flooding is a natural cycle of any river, so they don’t build houses too close to the banks. They know their drinking water comes from the groundwater rivers, so they don’t use pesticides on their fields. Those who want to build dams have either lost (or never had) this basic connection to water and the understanding that rivers represent life for humans too.
Complex relationship
Drifting along the lazy flow between rapids of the upper Sava, the paddlers had the chance to ponder this complex relationship between humans and rivers, which was part of what made this trip about so much more than just kayaking.
It was anything but an extreme whitewater trip and more about exploring eddies, camping on white pebble gravel bars, cooking fish over driftwood fires and observing birds overhead.
The documentary created from the trip, ‘One for the River: The Sava Story’, tells all the little stories, like finding an old WW2 weapon, rescuing a bird tangled with a fishing hook and laughing around the campfire.
International awards
The film is currently circulating at international film festivals and, to date, has been shown at 20 film festivals in 14 countries and has won eight international awards. BRD also wrote a kayaking guidebook for the Sava River and will release an English version later in 2023. Making this river trip easy can also help bring kayakers to the Sava, thus showing local businesses and decision-makers that it is better to let this river push kayakers than push turbines.
PORTAGING AROUND MONSTERS
By paddling the whole section of the Sava in Slovenia, the kayakers got to feel the impact dams have on a river. Playful strokes through whitewater contrasted with pulling paddle blades through the flatwater of the reservoir in the lower Sava, where five large hydroelectric dams make kayaking a chore. Portaging around the concrete monsters was a task a task no one enjoyed.. But after they left the last dam behind them, the flow returned, and the paddlers were amazed by how quickly the river regained life.
Continually counting the number of individual birds seen, no one was surprised that the health of the water dictated the birds observed. Energetic dippers and kingfishers on the flowing sections replaced the ducks and swans of the reservoirs. And with the return of the flow came one last rapid, a final treat before the river flattens and widens into Pannonian flatlands. With blood pumping and spirits high, the crew was reminded of how resilient nature is and that if people keep their impact on rivers to a minimum, healthy humans and healthy rivers can coexist.
LIVING WITH NATURE
When they pulled their boats on the shore just metres upstream of the Croatian border, their previous notions of humans and nature being separate entities were dissolved. Humans have learned – and in some parts maintained – the knowledge of how to live with nature, not separate from it – and watching this in action from the seat of a kayak made for a unique and colourful learning experience, research opportunity and storytelling occasion.
