00:00Hi, or as we say in New Zealand, kia ora, I'm Anna.
00:03And I'm Callum from Conservation Amplified,
00:06and we're cycling the entire Danube River from source to sea.
00:25To me, it was that moment of, this is becoming real now.
00:30Like, we are now actively interfering in the river ecosystem
00:35to ensure that, I guess, human needs and electricity and the power needs are being met.
00:53One is seeing a lot of wildlife, in particular birds, panting during the day
00:59and, you know, we're obviously cycling sometimes in the heat
01:04and we're struggling, but then seeing them struggle is even worse.
01:11We can take ourselves out of that environment and go into the shade,
01:16but for a stork, for example, that nests on an open platform,
01:21they don't have that ability.
01:27We started seeing a wildfire beginning to pick up.
01:30It's hot, it's dry and it's windy.
01:32This is not good.
01:35Just seeing how dry the ground is, like, it's just the sparks needed to go up in flames.
01:44As we've developed in Europe and we've commercialised and channelised
01:50and adapted the river for human needs,
01:53from an environmental perspective,
01:54it's a lot better if we can think about the needs of nature
01:57when we're building infrastructure.
02:09They created, I believe it was an eight-kilometre fish bypass channel
02:13so that the fish could swim around the dams.
02:16And then that, through a series of measures, allowed for ecological flooding
02:21so that then these floodplain forests could be flooded periodically,
02:26allowing all this shade and habitat for wildlife,
02:30but also for humans and recreation.
02:32And then they could also get a bit more fluctuation in the water levels.
02:45There's a lot of cool stories of wildlife coming back to the Danube River.
02:51A river is a lifeline.
02:53It's fresh water.
02:55It's so important to treasure these places
02:58and not take them for granted
03:00and just notice the wildlife that's trying to live along the river as well
03:05and that should be thriving along the river
03:07and give them space.
03:20I'll see you in the next one.
03:20I'll see you in the next one.
03:20I'll see you in the next one.
03:20I'll see you in the next one.
03:20I'll see you in the next one.
03:21I'll see you in the next one.
03:21You
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