Advancing freshwater restoration

Nice to meet in person as we wrap up EcoAdvance (Horizon Europe) and our work showcasing the people who make a difference.

Inspiring talks by Michal Kravčík, Máté Chappon, Atila Bezdan and David Attila Molnar highlighted key evidence of progress on freshwater restoration in the Danube region. They summarized the Showcases, presenting lessons they learned on what makes projects prone to success.

**Advice from Prof Bezdan: avoid jumping straight into technical details without first building trust and shared goals with stakeholders. Don’t overlook local knowledge or skip genuine community engagement.

**Dr. Molnar outlines his 5 easy steps – and how he helped persuade communities in 9 Danuabe countries to join the fight agains plastic pollution: 1.Write a protocol. 2.Try to follow it. 3.Learn to change it. 4.Get used to improvise. 5. Document everything.

**Dr. Kravcik focuses on small water cycles and has seen the Big Change it has made:: In Slovakia, many people already know that retaining rainwater in a damaged country is essential for the future of the country.

Different challenges,different solutions, different countries, but all agreed on the central methodologies: From community dialogue on allocating resources and land to reduce flooding while preserving navigation with Nature based solutions, riverboats that find plastic trash hotspots, innovative constructed wetlands to reduce pollution and improve water quality, and research on harmonizing the water cycle, these innovations represent strides in implementation the hashtag#EuropeanGreenDeal. Hear the voices and perspectives of more innovators in freshwater restoration at https://lnkd.in/ebhnKNzv