Rewilding across borders in the Oder Delta

January 15, 2025

In the Oder Delta, which straddles the German-Polish border, river and riparian restoration efforts are breathing new life into a giant watery ecosystem.

Aerial view of rewetted peat bogs and the Peene River in fall colours, west of the city of Anklam, Rewilding Europe Oder Delta, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Germany, October 2020
The Oder Delta, bisected by the German-Polish border, is a giant interconnected mosaic of rivers, lakes, wetlands, heathlands, and riparian forests.
Florian Möllers / Rewilding Europe

 

Towards wilder waters

Oder Delta emblem logoArtur Furdyna, a hydrobiologist, has spent the last 20 years bringing biodiversity back to the Oder River and its tributaries. He knows better than most how well-functioning waterways are critical to the overall health of the Oder Delta, which may be bisected by the German-Polish border, but is effectively a giant interconnected mosaic of rivers, lakes, wetlands, heathlands, and riparian forests.

“From a human perspective, the delta has a Polish and German side, but from a natural perspective, it’s one watery ecosystem. Last year, we focused our efforts on rewilding a tributary of the Oder River in Poland. To bring about meaningful and positive change, we need to work on both sides of the border, which is what the Rewilding Oder Delta team are aiming to do in a coordinated way.”


“From a human perspective, the delta has a Polish and German side, but from a natural perspective, it’s one watery ecosystem.”

Artur Furdyna

Artur Furdyna
Hydrobiologist at Rewilding Oder Delta


 

Revitalising waterscapes

Rivers harbour some of the richest biodiversity on earth and provide an array of benefits to people. Healthy, free-flowing rivers, which are well-connected with surrounding landscapes, offer a wide range of habitats for wildlife species. Such “waterscapes” also help to purify water and reduce the risk of downstream flooding in times of heavy rainfall, and are more resilient to the effects of climate change.

In the Oder Delta rewilding landscape, which comprises the centrally located 70,000-hectare Stettin Lagoon, and 380,000 hectares of surrounding forest and open areas, many streams and rivers are in poor ecological condition. Riverbeds have been artificially straightened, deepened, and embanked in many places, the free flow of water has been restricted by barriers such as dams and weirs, and the areas surrounding rivers drained and reclaimed for human activity, such as agriculture and forestry. Channelising rivers increases the speed of water flow, increases erosion, reduces the amount of sediment in the water, and reduces the diversity of riverbed habitats, which are essential for species such as fish and aquatic invertebrates.

 

White tailed sea eagle, Haliaeetus albicilla, from fishing boat, on sea eagle safari tours in the Stettin lagoon, Poland, Oder river delta/Odra river rewilding area, Stettiner Haff, on the border between Germany and Poland
Healthy, free-flowing rivers, which are well-connected with surrounding landscapes, offer a wide range of habitats for wildlife species, including white-tailed eagles (featured here).
Staffan Widstrand/Rewilding Europe

 

Collaborative rewilding efforts

In collaboration with local partners – and complementing other rewilding efforts around forest restoration and wildlife comeback across the landscape – the Oder Delta rewilding team are working to restore a number of local waterways through a range of measures.

These include rewetting wetlands near rivers to increase water storage, planting riparian trees to provide shade and lower water temperatures, removing barriers to increase habitat connectivity, and supporting riverine species by restoring spawning grounds, which typically involves adding stone and gravel in locations where it should occur naturally.

 

Dr. rer. nat. Sebastian Lorenz - Head of the Physical Geography Laboratory / University of Greifswald, Institute of Geography and Geology explaining the soil sampling process
Dr. Sebastian Lorenz, head of the Physical Geography Laboratory at the University of Greifswald, takes soil samples in the Oder Delta.
Agnieszka Sobon / Rewilding Oder Delta

 

The power of prisms

In the autumn of 2023, the rewilding team carried out restoration work on a small stretch of the 126-kilometre-long Ina River, which flows into the Oder River and has a roughly 2000 square-kilometre catchment area. Together with local partners, and with the use of an excavator, the team oversaw the construction of raised stone and gravel features (called “prisms”) on the riverbed at three sites, near the Polish village of Strumiany. Laid down in a natural way, these prisms – and the sequences of rapids and pools they create – are extremely important for the natural functioning of rivers.

“As a rewilding measure, the addition of stone and gravel helps to diversify and naturalise water flow, thereby improving the living conditions for aquatic animals and plants,” explains Artur Furdyna. “It also helps to stabilise water levels. This, in turn, benefits people by enhancing water retention, increasing the availability of clean water and reducing the risk of floods and droughts, boosting the filtration of agricultural chemicals, and mitigating climate change through enhanced carbon storage.”

 

Gravel bed restoration on the Ina River in the Oder Delta.
The addition of stone and gravel to the Ina River will help to diversify and naturalise water flow, enhancing living conditions for aquatic animals and plants.
Neil Aldridge / Rewilding Europe

 

Riparian restoration

In late October, the Oder Delta rewilding team followed up on their riverbed restoration efforts by planting around 100 willow saplings along the Ina. This was carried out in collaboration with several Polish NGOs, as well as volunteers from a nearby town and village.

Riverside trees provide numerous benefits. They can help the self-cleaning process of a catchment area by capturing nutrient run-off. They also create niches for mosses and aquatic lichens, and habitat for birds and insects, which helps to enhance biodiversity. Tree roots stabilise riverbanks and reduce erosion. And the partial shading of rivers by trees, when combined with the addition of gravel and stone piles, also helps to stabilise the temperature of the water, which can benefit a wide range of wildlife species, particularly fish. In river valleys such as that of the Ina, trees also act as a natural flood barrier.

 

Fungi growing in broadleaf woodland near Glashütte, Oder Delta.
The Oder Delta rewilding team are also working to restore forests, which are important for many fungi, plant and animal species.
Neil Aldridge / Rewilding Europe

 

Scaling up

The rewilding team plan to continue rewilding efforts along the Ina and other rivers on the Polish side of the delta in 2024. They also want to develop a monitoring programme, which would assess the beneficial impact of their work.

“This would prove that our actions make sense and help to scale up rewilding measures across the region,” says Artur Furdyna. “Eventually we would like to see similar restoration carried out as part of regular maintenance work along multiple rivers and their surroundings in the Oder Delta. Carried out on such a cross-border scale, this would really amplify the benefits for people and nature.”

 

Aerial view of the flooded meadows along the Seegraben, a channel close to the villages of Uhlenkrug and Viereck. Rewilding Oder-Delta. Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Germany.
Rewetting peatlands in the Oder Delta supports nature recovery and boosts carbon capture and storage.
Florian Möllers / Rewilding Europe

 

Invaluable support

Rewilding Europe’s work in our rewilding landscapes is supported by a wide range of highly valued partners. We would particularly like to acknowledge those providing core funding – notably the Ecological Restoration Fund, the Dutch Postcode Lottery, WWF-Netherlands, and Arcadia. Their longstanding support plays a critical role in enabling us to deliver and scale up rewilding impact.

 

Want to know more?

This blog is taken from a longer story entitled “Rewilding without borders”, which featured in the Rewilding Europe Annual Review 2023.

Download a PDF of the story Or check out our Annual Review 2023

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