International Rivers Network
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International Rivers protects rivers and defends the rights of communities that depend on them. International Rivers opposes destructive dams and the development model they advance, and encourages better ways of meeting people’s needs for water, energy and protection from damaging floods.
[edit] Vision
International Rivers seeks a world in which rivers and the ecosystems they support are valued, and the importance of the links between healthy environments and healthy societies is understood. We envision a world where development projects neither degrade nature nor impoverish people, and where all people have a voice in decisions affecting their lives and livelihoods.
[edit] Mission
The group's mission is to protect rivers and defend the rights of communities that depend on them. International Rivers opposes destructive dams and the development model they advance, and encourages better ways of meeting people’s needs for water and energy and protection from destructive floods. To achieve this mission, the group collaborates with a global network of local communities, social movements, non–governmental organizations and other partners. Through research, education and advocacy, International Rivers works to halt destructive river infrastructure projects, address the legacies of existing projects, improve development policies and practices, and promote water and energy solutions for a just and sustainable world. The primary focus of IRN’s work is in the global South.
[edit] Strategies
International Rivers has adopted a two–pronged approach, combining work on changing global policies with campaigning on specific key projects around the world. We do this because we understand that effective lobbying for policy change must include specific project examples, and that fighting successive individual projects without addressing root causes is not an efficient use of our resources nor will it decelerate the pace of destructive project construction.
The California-based group has campaigners living in a number of countries in the Global South, and works with environmental and human rights groups around the world in cooperative campaigns for community–based river development. International Rivers' involvement depends on the group's services being independently requested by credible, like–minded non–governmental organizations or by individuals from project–affected communities. In all our work, we rely on the leadership provided by the people directly affected by dams and other large water intervention projects.
The group publishes a quarterly magazine, "World Rivers Review," and a topical annual report on a variety of subjects. Most can be downloaded for free.
