Pictures: Unspoiled Rivers

Fishing the Okavango

Photograph by Frans Lanting, National Geographic

Local women fish among papyrus reeds in Botswana's Okavango River Delta.

The river is named after the Kavango people of northern Namibia, where its waters weave through grasslands and forest. In addition to the water the Okavango provides for livestock and farming, the Kavango have traditionally relied on it for fishing. The river is home to pike, barbels, tiger fish, and more.

Other communities dot the river's banks, with the Tswana people making up the primary human inhabitants of the Okavango Delta.

Tourism has become a mainstay of the local economy and a reliable way to keep the ecosystem relatively pristine, for now.

(Read more about the Okavango in National Geographic magazine.)

Published December 15, 2012

The Pantanal, Brazil

Photograph by Mike Bueno, Your Shot

Birds top a tree rising from the placid waters of South America's Pantanal, one of the world's largest wetlands.

Another lush landlocked floodplain, the Pantanal spreads for at least 69,000 square miles (180,000 square kilometers) across remote areas of Brazil, Bolivia, and Paraguay.

The conservation organization World Wildlife Fund calls the wetland "one of the world's most productive habitats," and one of the best preserved wetlands on the planet, despite the fact that less than 2 percent is officially designated as a protected area; that small portion of this vast ecosystem is preserved as a World Heritage site.

Annual tropical rains flood the Pantanal, creating a nursery for more than 270 species of fish. During drier months it is not uncommon to see hundreds of species of birds. The wetland is also home to caimans, giant river otters, anacondas, the endangered hyacinth macaw, and the elusive jaguar.

Beyond creating a home for myriad critters and a livelihood for indigenous peoples, the wetland serves to purify water as its plants suck up pollutants and nutrients. The Pantanal, at the headwaters of the Paraguay River, also helps to protect downstream settlements as it absorbs floodwaters and recharges groundwater aquifers.

This magnificent wetland's value may slowly fade as development and economic pressures build around it. Like many water bodies, the Pantanal is at risk of being drained for agriculture or cities, or polluted by oil and gas operations and related shipping infrastructure.

Published December 15, 2012

Floodplain Fishing

Photograph by Joel Sartore, National Geographic

A dorado caught in a flooded forest in Brazil becomes dinner.

This swamp is part of the vast Pantanal wetland in central South America. The rich biodiversity in the Pantanal helps to make it one of the world's most productive fisheries. (Related: Pacu: Freshwater Species of the Week.)

The region is home to hundreds of piscine species, but also to Homo sapiens. Nearly three million people live adjacent to the wetland. The swamps themselves are sparsely populated, but often used as pasture for farm animals during the dry season.

According to the United Nations Environment Programme, humans settled the Pantanal about 5,000 years ago.

(Read more about the Pantanal in National Geographic magazine.)

Published December 15, 2012

Rice Fields, Niger River

Photograph by George Steinmetz, National Geographic

The Niger River floods rice paddies in Mali. The river—Africa's third largest—flows nearly 2,600 miles (4,200 kilometers) from its source in Guinea through part of the Sahara to Nigeria's coast, where it spills into the Atlantic Ocean.

Two deltas grace the river, one inland in Mali and one along the coast.

The inland Niger River Delta is a 2,300-square-mile (6,000-square-kilometer) oasis where farming is balanced delicately with biodiversity.

For more than 1,700 years, the inland delta has helped support the dietary needs of the region, in both the form of fish and farm-based food. Rice and millet are common crops planted in the floodplain and in outlying sandy areas.

Nearly two million Malians live on the delta and rely on its waters. But their harmonious way of life may soon be interrupted by upstream dams and diversion for larger-scale agricultural and economic development projects.

Published December 15, 2012

Taking the Plunge

Photograph by Brent Stirton, Getty Images

Keeping an eye out for hippos, dockworkers take a break, and a dip, in the muddy Niger River in Mali.

The river takes a sharp turn south here, forming a 250-mile-wide (400-kilometer-wide) wetland in the Sahara. Millions of birds winter near the Niger River Delta among more permanent residents, including hippos, the African manatee, nile perch, and cichlids.

The Bozo people, who have called the delta home for centuries, rely on the river for fishing and growing food. The Bambara have planted rice and millet along the Niger River's banks for nearly as long.

Upsteam, there are plans that will dwarf local agricultural efforts. The Mali government has made a deal with Chinese sugar farms and Libyan rice growers to develop irrigated fields using Niger River water. Already, foreign rice fields sometimes drain up to 70 percent of the river's flow. New projects could mean that the river dries up completely before it reaches its inland delta, according to hydrologists working in the region.

Published December 15, 2012

Stikine River, British Columbia

Photograph by Sarah Leen, National Geographic

The rugged Stikine River starts as mountain snowmelt in British Columbia, then rages 380 miles (610 kilometers) past towns like Telegraph Creek (above), and through deep canyons, moose territory, and native lands, before spilling into Alaska and finally the Pacific Ocean.

National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence Wade Davis once described the start of the river, 120 miles (193 kilometers) east of Telegraph, as ". . . a spectacular valley known to the First Nations as the Sacred Headwaters. There, three of Canada's most important salmon rivers—the Stikine, the Skeena, and the Nass—are born in close proximity."  (Read the rest of the story and see more pictures of the three rivers.)

Still considered a pristine natural area, the alpine basin that births the headwaters is in the sights of mining and energy companies that see potential for open-pit copper and gold mining and coal-bed methane gas extraction. Several environmental groups and conservation photographers have rallied to maintain these rivers and the people, wildlife, and wild salmon that rely on them.

Published December 15, 2012

River Wading

Photograph by Sarah Leen, National Geographic

A dog cools his paws in British Columbia's Stikine River.

The river and its valleys, canyons, plains, and forest are home to the Tahltan First Nation, who have been in the region for tens of thousands of years and are currently in negotiation with several large mining, oil, and gas companies that want to stake a claim in the region's rich natural resources.

The pace at which these companies are developing projects in the Stikine River Basin is "unprecedented," according to the nonprofit Rivers Without Borders, which specializes in transboundary river management.

A 2010 report in the journal Nature estimated that 80 percent of the surface water supplies people rely on around the world are at risk of being polluted or overfished to the point of being unusable—unless we start to work with nature to restore these critical reserves.

(Read more about the Stikine in National Geographic magazine.)

Published December 15, 2012

Amazon Basin, Brazil

Photograph by Ton Koene, Visuals Unlimited/Corbis

A Xingu boy hunts from a dugout canoe in Brazil's Amazon Basin.

The Xingu River—a 1,230-mile-long (1,980-kilometer-long) tributary of the Amazon—is at the center of a heated debate about the role indigenous peoples should play in the construction of large-scale infrastructure projects that could displace thousands of people and flood the habitat they use daily for fishing and commerce.

The Brazilian government has rallied for a 11,000-megawatt dam on the Xingu. If built, the operation, called Belo Monte, could supply up to 23 million homes with electricity, making it the third largest hydroelectric operation in the world. Three Gorges Dam in China and the Itaipu Dam along the Brazil-Paraguay border are bigger.

Critics weigh the potential energy and economic gains of the dam against the potential loss of Xingu communities and culture downstream. At risk of losing their homes and river-based livelihoods are members of the Juruna, Arara, and Xikrin tribes, among others.

(Read more about the controversy.)

Published December 15, 2012

River Life

Photograph by Mario Tama, Getty Images

A woman prepares food in the Xingu River near the Belo Monte dam site.

Once the dam is operational, the Xingu will be flooded upstream, displacing thousands of residents. The project would also reduce the Xingu River's downstream flow.

Local communities staged protests last October over the environmental and cultural consequences of the dam. And they raged on during the United Nations Rio+20 conference in June, when indigenous leaders occupied the dam site. Two weeks later, activists detained several engineers, demanding appropriate mitigation measures.

Brazilian authorities have promised to spend more than $1 billion to help relocate communities.

Hydroelectric projects, like the one on the Xingu, are popping up all over the Amazon, as a means of economic development and as a source of energy for growing population centers.

In 2010 there were an estimated 2,200 large dams planned for South America, including 1,700 in Brazil alone, according to a relatively recent paper on the downstream human consequences of dams in the journal Water Alternatives.

(See more pictures of the Xingu River.)

Published December 15, 2012

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Photograph by Ellis Ray, Photo Researchers/Getty Images

Published December 15, 2012