The rivers were celebrated at 3pm on 14 July in over a hundred locations across Europe, mostly in fine weather.
New registrations are still coming in.
You can still label your event for 14 July or this weekend.
The importance of river restoration and free-flowing rivers (FFR) is increasingly recognized by European environmental policy. While the notion of free-flowing rivers is not yet defined in EU environmental legislation, the Commission’s interpretation is that free-flowing rivers are rivers that are not impaired by artificial barriers and are not disconnected from their floodplain, thus allowing the free movement of water, sediment, fish and other organisms. The Water Framework Directive (WFD) and the Biodiversity Strategy 2030 are of particular importance in this context. Indeed, the EU Biodiversity Strategy includes the target that at least 25000 km of rivers should be restored into free-flowing rivers by 2030 through the removal of primarily obsolete barriers and the restoration of floodplains and wetlands.
A guide has therefore just been published proposing criteria for identifying free-flowing rivers, taking into account longitudinal, lateral, and vertical connectivity at local and catchment scales. The aim is to provide a tool that can be used by authorities to determine the length of free-flowing rivers in their catchments. In addition, the tool can be used to predict the increase in free-flowing river length resulting from barrier removal and other restoration measures. This will help prioritising measures that can contribute to the 25,000 km target. Key elements of the method are (1) segmentation of the river into homogeneous reaches; (2) criteria for longitudinal, lateral, and vertical connectivity within a homogeneous reach; (3) a large-scale assessment taking into account sediment connectivity and migration barriers for target fish species; and (4) minimum length criteria to ensure hydromorphological processes and ecological functioning.
The Commission wants to use the rest of the year to further test the methodology by applying it to more cases. Then, they will adjust and finalise the methodology early 2025; and continue exchanges in ECOSTAT WG in the following years. Please let us know if you would like to test this methodology by writing to corinne.ronot@rivernet.org
Read EEB press release :
Brussels/Luxembourg, 17 June 2024
Today, after a nail-biting last discussion, the EU Environmental Council finally adopted the Nature Restoration Law (NRL), marking the last step for this long-awaited proposal to become law. This outcome is a huge win for Europe’s nature, climate action, citizens and future.
Member States followed through with their commitments and with a majority of 20 countries, representing 66.07% of the population, the law was officially endorsed, thanks to Austria’s Environment Minister Leonore Gewessler stepping up at the last minute, changing the country’s previous stance and safeguarding the law.
The #RestoreNature coalition, consisting of BirdLife Europe, ClientEarth, EEB and WWF EU, says: “Today’s vote is a massive victory for Europe’s nature and citizens who have been long calling for immediate action to tackle nature’s alarming decline. After years of intense campaigning and many ups and downs, we are jubilant that this law is now reality – this day will go down in history as a turning point for nature and society. Now, we need all hands on deck: Member States must properly implement this legislation without delay in their countries, in close collaboration with all involved stakeholders. At the end of the day, nature can rebounce, for the benefit of our climate, biodiversity and people!”
The law has faced one of the most tumultuous journeys in the history of EU legislation. After surviving an unprecedented and absurd disinformation campaign, aiming to destroy the NRL in the European Parliament, it faced the risk of being rejected at the very last step in the Environment Council. In the end, however, support for the law carried the day.
This is also a timely outcome to present at the upcoming UN Biodiversity Conference (CBD COP16) later this year, showing that Europe is willing to lead the way in tackling the climate and biodiversity crises by owning up to its global commitments. It is also a very clear message to the new EU Parliament and Commission, to not forget to keep biodiversity at the forefront of their agenda.
This result followed a massive public mobilisation. Over the past few years, over a million signatures and messages from citizens, repeated calls from 6000+ scientists, 100+ businesses, youth organisations, and civil society from across numerous sectors have been made to defend the law and the integrity of the EU Green Deal. As the #RestoreNature coalition, we want to thank anyone who contributed to this result and made it happen.
To mark World Migratory Fish Day on Saturday 25 May, ERN-SOS Loire Vivante is launching three videos about Atlantic salmon and ecological continuity.
These videos are previews of remixed extracts from the documentary entitled “Pour une fois qu’il faut laisser couler”, which will be released shortly.
The 2-minute portrait and landscape modules presented here, in French and English, plunge you into the life of the Atlantic salmon in the Allier and Sélune rivers and present 2 major innovative and far-reaching actions that France has taken to restore access to the upstream areas of rivers and streams, the historic breeding grounds of the Atlantic salmon.
Discover these videos :
The New Poutès, the dam that opens for wild salmon
watch the French version / watch the English version
Allier River : An obstacle course for salmon
watch the French version / watch the English version
France: The largest dam removal project in the world, 2017-2022
watch the French version / watch the English version
All the videos can also be viewed on our new YouTube channel: “Rivières Vivantes – Laisser Couler”: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjokCmOpXMcgD4ag3UY3ctg
Note :
Every two years, the WWF publishes a report measuring the state of biodiversity. In 2024, we are presented with the state of France’s rivers.
The report states that “Despite spending an estimated €500 billion on water policies over the past 20 years, freshwater bird and fish populations are stagnating at a worrying rate, and only 43.1% of rivers and water bodies in France are in good ecological condition”. It also highlights “a slight decline in bird and fish populations observed in rivers (-0.4% in 20 years), with emblematic species such as the river trout and the great crested grebe particularly threatened. This virtual stagnation masks an overall deterioration in the quality of small rivers in rural areas, offset by an improvement in the water quality of rivers downstream of large towns”. River trout populations, which depend on upstream areas of rivers, are a good illustration of this phenomenon, with a 44% drop in populations in 20 years, as a result of serious deterioration in many rivers at the head of the basin.
With 3 years to go before the deadline set by the WFD, we need to think again and give a major boost to improving the resilience of the water cycle (preserving wetlands, overhauling the agricultural system).
Read Roberto Epple interview in the newspaper “Liberation”
The new Living Planet Index (LPI) report on migratory freshwater fish published today by the World Fish Migration Foundation (WFMF), ZSL, IUCN, The Nature Conservancy (TNC), Wetlands International and WWF has highlighted an 81% decline in the size of monitored populations on average between 1970 and 2020, including catastrophic declines of 91% in Latin America and the Caribbean and 75% in Europe.
Populations of migratory freshwater fish species continue to decline across the globe, risking the food security and livelihoods of millions of people, the survival of countless other species, and the health and resilience of rivers, lakes and wetlands. Habitat loss and degradation – including fragmentation of rivers by dams and other barriers and conversion of wetlands for agriculture – account for half of the threats to migratory fishes, followed by over-exploitation. Increasing pollution and the worsening impacts of climate change are also fuelling the fall in freshwater migratory fish species, which have now been declining consistently for 30 years.
The index reports on population trends of 284 monitored freshwater f ish species, representing 1,864 populations (Figure 1). Globally, the index shows a decline of -81% between 1970 and 2020, or an annual decline of 3.3%. This downward trend has been consistent over the last 3 decades. In terms of global species trends, 65% of species have declined on average, while 31% have increased.
In a press release Herman Wanningen, founder of the World Fish Migration Foundation said Herman Wanningen, fondateur de la World Fish Migration Foundation a déclaré “The catastrophic decline in migratory fish populations is a deafening wake-up call for the world. We must act now to save these keystone species and their rivers. Migratory fish are central to the cultures of many Indigenous Peoples, nourish millions of people across the globe, and sustain a vast web of species and ecosystems. We cannot continue to let them slip silently away.”
The report is not all doom and gloom. Nearly one third of monitored species have increased, suggesting that conservation efforts and improved management can have positive impacts. Some promising strategies include the improved and/or species-focused management of fisheries, habitat restoration, dam removals, the creation of conservation sanctuaries, and legal protection.
For example, in Europe and the United States, thousands of dams, levees, weirs and other river barriers have been removed in recent decades, and momentum for such actions is growing*. Dam removals can be cost-effective, job-producing solutions that help reverse the disturbing trend of biodiversity loss in freshwater systems as well as solutions that improve river health and resilience for people, too.
While scaling up dam removals is a key solution to reversing the collapse in freshwater migratory fish populations, there are more. Decision makers across the globe must urgently accelerate efforts to protect and restore free-flowing rivers through basin-wide planning, investing in sustainable renewable alternatives to the thousands of new hydropower dams that are planned across the world as well as other measures that contribute to the ambitious goals in the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework to protect 30% of inland waters and restore 30% of degraded inland waters. Rising to the Freshwater Challenge’s goal of restoring 300,000 km of degraded rivers will contribute enormously to reversing the trend in migratory fish populations.
Along with protecting and restoring healthy rivers, there is an urgent need to strengthen monitoring efforts; better understand fish species’ life-history, movement and behaviour; expand international cooperation, such as adding more freshwater migratory fish species to the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS); and promote greater public and political engagement.
There are many initiatives around the world supporting the recovery of migratory fish species and freshwater biodiversity in general. The Emergency Recovery Plan for Freshwater Biodiversity highlights a variety of measures that could transform the management and health of rivers, lakes and wetlands to improve the health of freshwater systems and biodiversity.
*In 2023, Europe removed a record 487 barriers – a whopping 50% increase over the previous high reported in 2022. Meanwhile, in the United States, the largest dam removals in history are currently underway along the Klamath River in California and Oregon.
In the series of Tuesday webinars organised by ERN- SOS Loire Vivante, book your Tuesday 4 June trip to the Sélune.
ERN France in partnership with the OFB is organising a webinar on the Sélune on Tuesday 4 June from 4pm to 6pm.
We will be welcoming 3 researchers. They will present the latest results of their work. Focusing on the post-effacement phase, we will try to understand how the river and the valley are resuming their course. The presentations will be followed by an hour of discussion.
Programme:
Alain Crave: Restoration of sedimentary, hydric and chemical continuity and changes in water quality
François Martignac: Recolonisation of the Sélune valley by migratory fish
Marie-Anne Germaine: What project for the region after the dismantling of the Sélune dams? A social approach to ecological restoration
If you are interested, register to take part in the webinar (in french) : https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_ytrz6dxMQUCAhysM6DCCVw
All replays of our webinars (french only) : Webinaires – European Rivers Network (ern.org)
A new in-depth study carried out by five major climate and environmental organisations, brought together under the “Vote Nature” alliance and comprising BEE, CAN Europe, BirdLife Europe, Transport & Environment and the WWF European Policy Office, reveals that only a minority of MEPs during the 2019 – 2024 mandate acted to protect Europe’s climate, nature and air quality. The majority of MEPs acted instead as either “procrastinators” or “prehistoric thinkers”, delaying real action with patchy and inconsistent voting records, or worse, completely failing to rise to the challenge of the crises Europe is facing.
The Scoreboard provides a comprehensive assessment of MEPs’ voting behaviour between 2019 and 2024 across 30 policy files on climate, nature, pollution, and circular economy.
It categorises political parties into three types:
🦸♀️ Protectors: A small yet vital group who have staunchly supported the European Green Deal.
🐌 Procrastinators: Those with inconsistent voting records, often delaying necessary actions.
🦖 Prehistoric Thinkers: Those who opposed progressive measures, obstructing crucial progress.
Access the scoreboard : EU Elections: EU Parliament Scoreboard 2019-2024 (caneurope.org)
This June, citizens will be able to hold their representatives accountable for their recent parliamentary performance and demand higher ambition from the European Parliament in the years to come.
*The scores are based on the voting recommendations of the five European environmental organisations.
Following the successful removal of 4 weirs on the Tardoire in 2023, ERN will have the pleasure of supporting, as part of the Open Rivers programme, the removal of the Pont de Rhodes weir being carried out by the Syndicat Mixte de la Dordogne Moyenne et de la Cère Aval, on the Ressegue, a sub-tributary of the Cère (BV Dordogne). The water pearl mussel, which is on the IUCN red list, is present in this basin. The restoration work will reconnect 12.3 km, i.e. 96% of the length of the Ressegue, and 23 km of watercourses throughout the catchment area.
The work will be 100% funded by the Open Rivers programme, for which ERN and the SMDMCA applied in 2023. The study phase was also financed by the Open Rivers programme with the ERN/SMDMCA partnership.
The next call for applications is set for 29th October 2024 (grant categories A: Programme-supported dam removals and B: Enabling others to remove dams).
More infos : https://www.ern.org/fr/openrivers/
With the support of the OFB as part of the Mobbiodiv call for projects, ERN will shortly be publishing a documentary on the restoration of ecological continuity in France from 1997 to the present day. Entitled “Pour une fois qu’il faut laisser couler”, the 3-part film traces the history of the major events and projects that have marked the restoration of the free movement of rivers in France. It is told from the point of view of our association. English version will aslo be available
Short modules will soon be available on the web.
part 1/3: Reopening river routes to large migratory species
part 2/3: Reconnecting small and medium-sized rivers
part 3/3: Rethinking and reconfiguring major blocking structures
At the end of 2023, the Water and Biodiversity Ministry published a video on ecological continuity, answering questions on the subject and deconstructing preconceived ideas.
Watch the video (in french) Le Vrai / Faux de la continuité écologique des cours d’eau
ERN France
ERN is the official WWF Freshwater Partner in France and cooperates with WWF Switzerland, Austria, Netherlands and others
