Living Rivers Europe (LRE) [1] analysed the key results of a pan European survey of national governments on river continuity restoration released on by the European Centre for River Restoration. The survey reveals that a majority of countries have databases of artificial river barriers, prioritisation lists for their removal, and river continuity restoration policies or strategies in place.
The results show that European countries are ready to implement a legally binding target on free-flowing river restoration. We recommend including a legally binding obligation to restore at least 25,000 km of free-flowing rivers through barrier removal and wetland and floodplain restoration by 2025 in the EU nature restoration Law now, as well as any other monitoring requirements needed, in order to increase this target during the next review of the Law or separate act.
Read the briefing Briefing Paper EU Free-flowing river target
[1] Living Rivers Europe is a coalition of five environmental and angling organisations gathering WWF’s European network, the European Anglers Alliance, European Environmental Bureau, European Rivers Network, The Nature Conservancy and Wetlands International.
Photo: A Keizer