Advancing freshwater restoration

Freshwater restoration is growing in popularity across Europe, increasingly backed by better scientific knowledge, practical experience and political support. However, as work in the EU MERLIN project shows, there is still a need to demonstrate how successful restoration can be mainstreamed across the continent.

A new survey aims to help advance freshwater restoration in Europe by identifying the factors that make restoration projects successful. The EcoAdvance project – funded by the EU Horizon scheme – has designed the survey to gather the perspectives of freshwater scientists, academics, managers, community organisers and policy makers across Europe.

The results of the survey will contribute to a tool which supports freshwater restoration projects by showcasing best-practice examples and case studies, at both continental and national scales. This work is extremely timely given the adoption of the EU Nature Restoration Law – and its commitment to restoring 25,000km of free flowing rivers across Europe – earlier this year.

“Success inspires success, and when you hear these people, when you see the varieties of paths they followed to be successful, when you read their insights into how to deal with barriers, it is nothing short of inspiring,” says EcoAdvance partner Phyllis Posy. “You understand that Europe really has the people and resilience to achieve the Green Deal.”

“The survey will help us understand country differences – the diversity of stressors and climates – and what factors make restoration projects prone to success,” adds EcoAdvance coordinator Mark Morris. “This includes the tools people use to adapt to specific technical and social challenges that could derail a project.”

For EcoAdvance partners Helmut Habersack – voted the Austrian of the Year in Research 2023 for his work on river restoration – the work is important to help bring people together, recalling years when “engineers and ecologists were colliding, and no one could go forward.” Habersack explains: “there is only one river – and we have no choice but to come to the table and work together.”

The EcoAdvance survey is open until 30th October and can be completed here.

Image: -JuhoP- | Flickr Creative Commons

TOMORROW IS OUR DAY!!! EcoAdvance (Horizon Europe) featured in the @NatureforLife HUB Day 3 focused on restoring the balance between Nature and People. Our video is part of the Deeper Dives section and features BioAgora Project and Onewater. Twan Stoffers,Lisa Waldenberger, and others consider how to transform and restore our freshwater resources but considering other points of view -- even a fish's!

EcoAdvance stars again! The 2024 edition of the @UNEP Nature for Life Hub broadcast world-wide starting September 30 will feature a video collaboration between EcoAdvance BioAgora Project and Onewater.   Nature for Life Hub, co-hosted by the United Nations Development Programme, The United Nations Environment Programme, and The Convention on Biological Diversity, is designed as a platform for raising awareness of the value of nature. Every year it holds a competition to find the most persuasive media to inspire and engage people from across the spectrum and across the world in improving the environment.

This year our contribution will be broadcast on October 2nd, on demand, in the Deep Dives section in the "Behavioral Change and Environmental Impact" segment. We will be featured with @Rodale Institute, @The Nature Conservancy, @ Rare, and  @Ayni Studios, among other winners. 
Our video captures transformative learning based on a workshop at the Alpine Rivers Symposium to help stakeholders reimagine how to adapt to climate change.

 Changing attitudes and expectations of easy answers is the first step; people have to appreciate other points of view before they will change to more environmentally sustainable behaviors- change we all understand is urgently needed but continues to be difficult to attain.
Put hashtag#NatureforlifeHub2024 on your calendar! Register here: https://lnkd.in/dv_zdcd4

Freshwater Restoration was on the agenda at the DALIA Danube Lighthouse project workshop last week. EcoAdvance Partner Zuzana Boukalova, leads WP4, the Clustering work package,  presented strategies to work with other projects, gave the preliminary count on the EcoAdvance Survey and mapped out further plans for the two projects to leverage efforts.

Organised in Valtice, Moravia by T. G. Masaryk Water Research Institute (TGM WRI) and Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, participants from around the region were welcomed by project coordinator Boglárka O. Lakatos. The group toured the Czech Demo site Dyje and talked about flooding, which had started on the Morava River and assaulted the region over the weekend.

Excited to join the Network Nature Task Force meeting next week! Representing EcoAdvance, I get to work with other communicators to develop programs to support NBS, nature based solutions. 

How do we change the culture of grey infrastructure and focus more on leveraging what the environment may provide – rewilding, nature restoration and other methods to restore freshwater ecosystems?
The media plays a key role.

That's why at the Task Force meeting, I will be working to develop a program to educate journalists and help them understand the scientific and policy jargon and issues of the NBS, environment and climate sustainability ecosystem. 
Have an idea?

 Comment below so we can include it when we try to craft useful and feasible initiatives!

Will the Nature Restoration Law that went into effect last week achieve the jumpstart to ecosystem restoration Europe needs?

Maybe. Its supporters certainly hope it will anchor all of the work of NetworkNature EU, Biodiversa+, and other projects funded by the European Commission.

The challenge is how to “Make people part of ecosystem restoration in Europe” so it becomes a central tenet of European culture.

That is exactly why Bundesamt für Naturschutz German Federal Agency for Nature Conservation) held a workshop on the subject and gathered over 60 experts to pool their techniques and experience. 

So if you are looking for some high quality materials on how to engage people in investing in nature restoration, you'll find the answers and practical tips synthesized and expertly compiled by Irina Kozban, Simone Wulf and others into a video, a 2page guide for policy makers and a booklet that brings practice into focus. The outputs illustrate the importance, principles and practical aspects of involving society and various interest groups in restoration efforts: 

• 
  A short film “Making people part of ecosystem restoration” addresses the general public, Available at: https://lnkd.in/dGren6Wd
• A two-page information sheet “Making people part of ecosystem restoration – Key points for policy-makers” Available at: https://lnkd.in/dW5DDwpy
• A brochure (“PraxisInfo”) “Meaningful engagement in nature restoration at the local level” provides concrete practical guidance and references. Available at: https://lnkd.in/dF5Gaqag 

EcoAdvance Partner Lisa Waldenberger just came back from Paris and the launch of the BioDivRestore Knowledge Hub, a joint effort from Biodiversa+ and Water JPI/Water4All - Partnership to develop the knowledge Europe will need to effectively implement a hashtag#NatureRestoration Law. 

Hosted by the Ministère de la Transition Écologique et de la Cohésion des Territoires, and kicked off by Kim De Rijck, Policy Officer Biodiversity and Nature Restoration, EC, with a clear message: 

Europe must build synergies among the various initiatives and projects and make restoration knowledge more accessible in order to speed up the practice of restoration across Europe.

Lisa’s Task Force, on Research and Innovation, chaired by Metodi Sotirov and Stephanie Mansourian, spent two productive days outlining their roadmap and priorities. Sister projects MERLIN and BioAgora Project joined 50 other European and International experts from different aspects of restoration to hammer out workplans. 

This will certainly shape up to be a serious resource for European efforts to staunch Biodiversity loss and adapt to climate change. Stay Tuned!

EcoAdvance and Dalia Lighthouse launched an exciting new cluster initiative at the 3rd Workshop of the DALIA Danube Lighthouse Horizon Europe Mission to Restore Oceans and Waters. Zuzana Boukalova, Dalia WP1 leader and EcoAdvance WP2 Leader and meeting host @Veronika Ullmann (Katolische Uni Eichstatt – Ingolstadt) greet participants. @Jiří Kvapil (CCSS), WP4 Leader, introduced the DALIA Knowledge Hub for better decision making. 

Together with EcoAdvance, the teams will improve the Danube River Basin restoration of fresh and transitional water ecosystems by bringing together best practices and role models, like the EcoAdvance Showcases and Dalia demo sites.  Petr Pavlík (WRI TGM), the leader of the Dalia Demo Site 3, presented the run-off calculator, part of the options for improved protection of local communities and ecosystems from extreme events and pollution threats.

The EcoAdvance - DALIA Cluster, which will continue the roll-out in the coming months, will include consultations and exchange of experience as the Dalia Demo and replication sites work with EcoAdvance on determining what factors make freshwater restoration prone to success

Our own Lisa Waldenberger presented at the Brussels meeting of FreshWater Net BIOEAST & BOOST4BIOEAST - a coalition of Easten and Central Eu countries working to grow the bioeconomy and support smart water strategies including freshwater restoration. Barna Kovacs PhD introduced the agenda with Anastasia Perouli. Thanks for expert organization by Marie Kubankova and , Katerina Panailidou