The removal of dams and other barriers is one of the best ways to rewild rivers and enhance the benefits they deliver to people and nature. Dam Removal Europe’s latest progress report – which reveals a record number of dams were removed from European rivers in 2024 – shows the European dam removal movement continuing to gather pace.
In the Oder Delta, which straddles the German-Polish border, river and riparian restoration efforts are breathing new life into a giant watery ecosystem.
A grant from the Open Rivers Programme has enabled the removal of a number of small dams in the catchment of the Vindel River, in the Nordic Taiga rewilding landscape. By enabling the free flow of water, this will help to revitalise waterscapes and the wildlife populations they support.
In the Oder Delta, which is shared between Germany and Poland, many rivers have been negatively impacted by human intervention. Recent river restoration work carried out by the local rewilding team and partners on the Polish side is reinvigorating two tributaries of the Ina River, with benefits for nature and people.
The Border Meuse initiative, which kicked off 30 years ago in the Netherlands, has seen river restoration deliver a triple win for nature and people. It demonstrates perfectly how rewilding can make socio-economic as well as ecological sense.
Restoration work carried out on the Ina and Gowienica rivers (and their tributaries) is part of the Oder Delta rewilding programme, and will hopefully boost fish migration and populations in the area.
This year’s third European Rewilding Network webinar saw 17 participants from seven European countries discuss the return of European rivers to their natural, free-flowing state.
The signing of a five-year strategic partnership agreement between the two organisations signals their ongoing commitment to European nature restoration. Focusing on a number of key areas, the new cooperation will work towards tangible outcomes in support of wilder European nature.
Inviting widespread public support, the objective of the campaign is to keep the EU’s Water Framework Directive as rigorous as possible. With many EU member states failing to meet the targets of the directive, rewilding can help to improve the health of European water ecosystems and guarantee sustainable supplies of freshwater.
The plan, which involved constructing dykes around the Middle Oder wetland in Poland, would have had a catastrophic impact on biodiversity and negatively impacted the work of Rewilding Europe and its partners. The rest of Poland’s inland waterways programme will hopefully now be abandoned.