The Affric Highlands rewilding team are working hard to restore river woodlands. As climate change increasingly impacts the landscape, these will connect fragments of existing native woodland, reducing flood risk, boosting fish populations, and enhancing biodiversity.
An environmental catastrophe is playing out on the Oder River. As part of a cross-border NGO alliance, the Rewilding Oder Delta team is calling for rigorous investigation, a clear focus on the river’s full-scale restoration, and the abandonment of all harmful hydro-engineering plans.
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.
Ongoing measures to reconnect Lake Kartal with neighbouring lakes and the River Danube are seeing wildlife populations rebound and driving the development of the local economy.
By restoring the degraded river Lankälven, the Rewilding Lankälven project is also looking to stimulate and support activities based on local nature and culture.
Thousands of dams and other man-made obstacles fragment the world’s waterways. Their removal, which is now happening at an increasing rate in many European countries, is the best way to breathe new life into rivers and local economies.
Rewilding Sweden has been carrying out river restoration work in Swedish Lapland since 2016. Newly funded efforts will now focus on removing barriers from the River Abramsån, promising benefits for migratory fish, local communities and wild nature.
The removal of the Sindi Dam and other barriers along Estonia’s Pärnu River will mean more than 3000 kilometres of waterway can flow unrestricted once again. By allowing salmon and other fish species to migrate naturally, this will breathe new life into the river basin and local economies. Estonia’s pioneering efforts will be showcased during a Dam Removal Europe seminar on May 22 and 23, 2019.
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.
With only 40 percent of Europe’s waterways in good condition, a new study published today calls for tens of thousands of redundant dams and other barriers to be removed to help restore rivers and lakes – boosting wildlife populations and benefiting communities across the continent. A new initiative called Dam Removal Europe aims to start an era of dam removal.
