Photographer Page

Nicholas J. R. White

A wooden split-timer bridge crossing the Neretva River near Ulog. Many of the communities around the rivers in this part of Bosnia and Herzegovina have suffered population declines. Ulog, the site of a major hydropower development, has lost almost all its residents.

A view along the Neretva's forest-clad river valley, towards Ribari. Though haunted by war and littered with landmines, the region's biodiversity is exceptional – and little studied.

A local fisherman on the Neretva River at sunset. Located in the Srpska Republika entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the unspoiled river currently faces threats from multiple hydropower projects which would disrupt its flow and compromise ecological systems – as well as the lives of those living along it.

The Neretva River, photographed a couple of kilometres downstream from Ulog Village.

Milos Skrkar, photographed outside the old cinema in Ulog Village. A once thriving town with a population of around 700 people, only 12 remain – all members of Milos’ family. Ulog is a short journey upstream from the main dam-project in the region, and sits on the frontline of seven smaller hydropower projects.

Boban Skrkar, photographed inside his bar in Ulog. Boban hosted the 59 scientists and students on his property.

Michael Duda (left) and Elisabeth Haring (right) from the Natural History Museum, Vienna, searching for molluscs in the Neretva at dawn.

Thomas Friedrich, a member of the electrofishing team, enters the waters of the Neretva. Electrofishing stuns the fish temporarily for study.

Left: Elisabeth Weninger, a biology student from the University of Innsbruck. “The work we are doing, I think we can move something – we can do the science, and then reach people with it.” Right: Thomas Huber of the Institute of Hydrobiology and Aquatic Ecosystems Management at Vienna's University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences searches for macroinvertebrates close to the source of the Neretva River.

Sikimic's house is the same house she was born in, on the road to Ulog. At 68 years of age, she says she feels ‘part of the landscape’ and can’t imagine living anywhere else. She can no longer eat the produce grown in her garden due to the dust created from the construction site.