International Rivers

International Rivers is leading the charge in protecting the world’s river systems. Rivers are a biodiversity hotspot because they support over a third of all vertebrate species despite only holding 0.0006% of the water on Earth.

At A Glance

International Rivers are at the forefront of the effort to conserve the world’s river systems. Rivers are a hotspot for biodiversity, they contain just 0.0006% of Earth’s water yet are home to almost a third of vertebrate species. Rivers also nourish floodplains, feed sediment to inland and coastal deltas as rich in life as the Okavango and the Mekong and play important roles in sustaining healthy marine and terrestrial ecosystems such as coral reefs and riparian forests.

Despite their importance to life on Earth, rivers have been one of the most drastically altered ecosystems by human development. Over the past century more than 50,000 large dams have been built. Consequently, in river systems 34% of species are estimated to be threatened with extinction – and 472 million people are estimated to have been negatively affected by dam development alone.

As one of the only international NGOs working to conserve rivers and support the rights of the people who also depend on these systems, the organisation plays a key role in raising awareness of the threats to the world’s rivers and advocating for their protection and sustainable management. The organisation operationalises its global strategy through six regional offices, and a far larger network of local grassroots partners. Key themes of its work include strengthening local movements for healthy rivers and securing the human rights of local communities, promoting clean and fair finance for sustainable water and energy solutions and supporting equitable and effective governance including gaining legal protection for the world’s iconic rivers.

Synchronicity Earth began providing core funding to International Rivers in 2017 to support their work building a stronger global movement of grassroots organisations working to protect their local river systems. They are a key partner in our freshwater programme.