Open Rivers Programme : upcoming work in France and new call for applications starting 6 October

After the summer break, restoration work on the Laussonne (43), the Eyrieux (07) and Malencourie (24) rivers will begin this autumn.

The aim of this work is to ensure the continuity of the river and reconnect several kilometres upstream, increasing access to refuge areas and restoring the white-water habitats needed by sensitive species that inhabit these environments, such as trout, white-clawed crayfish and pearl mussels. Follow the progress of the work on the dedicated page

These projects were submitted by the European Rivers Network to the Open Rivers Programme for co-financing.

During the last application cycle, ERN received support for the Malencourie project aimed at removing an old reservoir and the Clain project for the removal of seven small structures on the upper Boivre, bringing the number of projects supported by the association (studies and works) to 15. During the last cycle, at least three other projects in France, led by fishing federations or unions, received support from the Open Rivers Programme: more info

The programme’s next call for projects will be open from 6 October 2025 to 31 October 2025 (decision in March 2026). Contact us for more information or to help you apply.

SAVE the DATE and REGISTRATION OPEN : Webinar on Open Rivers Programme : lessons learnt and best practices in Southeastern Europe

The next call for Open rivers Programme* applications is coming soon (from the 6th to the 31st of October 2025).

 

Need ideas and advice to prepare your projects and activities, or you just want to know more about Dam Removal in Southeastern Europe ?

Join our webinar on September 23, 2025 from 11:00 to 13:00 CEST. Organized by ERN and WWF NL, the webinar will highlight 3 successful projects completed and implemented in Eastern Europe.  We’ll have 3 presentations from different ORP grant categories. Speakers will present their project as well as lessons learnt and best practices, and it will be followed by a Q&A session :

Introduce, and moderate by Corinne Ronot ERN and Kerry Brink, WWF Nl

Registration is required: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_GBqXlSOeQZKO_YuY47vYiA

 

 

* The European Open Rivers Programme is a Dutch grant giving foundation funded by Arcadia. The foundation aims to restore endangered European rivers by supporting interventions that lead to the removal of small dams and the restoration of river flow and biodiversity.

Tribute to Jean Wencker

It is with deep sadness that we learned of the death of Jean Wencker in August 2025.

Jean Wencker devoted much of his life to protecting the environment and restoring aquatic habitats. As former president and then vice-president of Alsace Nature, he represented the association in numerous bodies: the International Commission for the Protection of the Rhine (ICPR), the Rhine-Meuse Basin Committee, the Saumon-Rhin association, and the Salmoncomeback NGO coalition, which is committed to bringing salmon back to Basel.

During his various terms of office, he tirelessly defended the ecological continuity of waterways, the protection of the Doubs and Rhine rivers, and the return of migratory fish, particularly salmon. He grew up on the banks of the Rhine, which shaped his commitment. In 2015, during a conference in Huningue, he emotionally shared memories of his father bringing salmon home and spoke of the devastation of the alluvial forests for the construction of dams in Strasbourg and Gerstheim, a major ecological disaster. Among his successes was the renovation of the Franco-Swiss Châtelot hydroelectric power station on the Doubs, inaugurated in 2006 after more than thirty years of struggle.

ERN and the Salmoncomeback coalition pay tribute to his career and his struggles. May they continue to inspire all those who work to protect life. Our thoughts are with his family and loved ones.

Read also the tribute by Alsace Nature.

Jean Wencker lors du colloque international Salmon Summit à Huningue en 2015 – CR .ERN

💧 EU Water Pollution Standards: Time to Act 💧

EU representatives were due to reach an agreement on updating water pollution standards on 15 July, but negotiations have once again been postponed until 23 September.

We’re nearing 3 years since the European Commission proposed long-overdue updates to regulate pharmaceuticals, more pesticides, and PFAS in surface and groundwater. This delay is becoming something of a record… 

These #RulesToProtect would rightly require Member States to monitor and act on these substances to urgently protect both people’s health and precious ecosystems on which we all depend.

Meanwhile, alarming reports continue to surface:

🧪 Toxic industrial discharges into rivers

💩 Raw sewage spreading antimicrobial resistance

🚱 Pesticides contaminating drinking water

 

As scientists did a few months earlier, a broad coalition of environmental and health organisations, healthcare professionals, social partners, recreational fishing associations, and water-dependent businesses is calling on the @Danish Presidency of the Council of the EU 2025, which kicked off in July, to conclude the negotiations without delay.

We urging the Danish Presidency of the Council of the EU to oppose attempts by some states to lower the ambition of the text and to take a position against an extension of the transition period or the introduction of new exemptions to the Water Framework Directive.

We must uphold ambition, adopt strong new quality standards, and legally ensure that Member States include targeted measures in the next River Basin Management Plans (2028–2033).

The health of Europe’s water – and its people – can’t wait 🌍

read the letter

logo Living Rivers Europe

The Living Rivers Europe Coalition urges Environment Ministers to support the upcoming Council conclusions on the European Water Resilience Strategy

 In light of increasing water scarcity, pollution, floods, and ecosystem degradation, the coalition calls for prioritising the restoration of the natural water cycle and ensuring access to clean water.

The success of the Strategy depends on fully implementing existing EU water and nature laws, particularly the Water Framework Directive, and on integrating water resilience into all relevant sectors – such as agriculture, energy, and transport. Nature-based solutions, such as wetland and floodplain restoration, must be prioritised over technological fixes, with clear, dedicated funding to support them.

The coalition also highlights the need for stronger governance, pollution prevention, and financial tools to drive systemic change. They call for targeted investments, conditionality in EU agricultural policy, and robust accountability measures.

Key requests:

  • Endorse the objectives of the European Water Resilience Strategy

  • Prioritise restoration of natural water cycles and ecosystems

  • Fully implement existing legislation, especially the Water Framework Directive

  • Mainstream water resilience across sectors and funding programmes

  • Prioritise nature-based solutions over technological infrastructure

  • Ensure dedicated funding in the next EU budget (2028–2034)

  • Enforce the Polluter Pays Principle and strengthen accountability

  • Apply strict environmental conditionality under the Common Agricultural Policy

  • Direct European Investment Bank funding toward ecological water retention projects

 

read the letter

 

SNB 2030 remains an ambitious framework, but its success will depend on the ability to remove the obstacles identified by the CNB.

The National Biodiversity Strategy 2030 aims to translate France’s commitment under the global biodiversity framework adopted in Montreal in December 2022 into concrete actions. Its ambition is clear: to halt and then reverse the collapse of biodiversity by 2030, in line with European and international objectives. The strategy is structured around four main areas and is based on a participatory approach involving public and private actors, associations and scientists.

At its meeting on 24 June 2025, the National Biodiversity Committee adopted a critical opinion on the 2024 progress report on the SNB 2030. It includes a detailed analysis and recommendations to strengthen the strategy’s effectiveness.
In summary, the SNB 2030 remains an ambitious framework, but its success will depend on the ability to overcome the obstacles identified by the CNB: financial resources, policy coherence and the involvement of all stakeholders.

Indeed, the CNB raises serious questions about France’s ability to meet its commitments, particularly in light of ongoing political and budgetary decisions. It emphasises that the resources allocated and the consistency of public policies remain insufficient to achieve the objectives set.
In particular, it recommends programming dedicated multi-year funding and ending subsidies that are harmful to biodiversity, as well as strengthening the convergence between climate and biodiversity policies in order to give them the same level of priority in public action.

The CNB highlights a gap between the stated ambitions and the concrete resources implemented, particularly in terms of ecosystem protection and the fight against invasive alien species.
It stresses the need for better territorialisation of the strategy, involving regions and local actors more closely, and for regular assessment of progress made.

The strategy must now be implemented at the regional level (regional COPs) and monitored annually by the CNB until 2030. The coming months will be crucial in assessing whether the committee’s recommendations are being taken into account and whether the resources allocated are sufficient to meet the challenges.

See NGO’s press release.

Big Jump Time : July 13 at 3 pm

over 60 registered events today ! More information : www.bigjump.org 

A look back at the exchange and training days on the voluntary protection of private natural areas

Since 1989, the association SOS Loire vivante – ERN has successfully protected the Upper Loire Valley between Mont Gerbier de Jonc and Le-Puy-en-Velay, 60 km of gorges and valleys, the wildest in the entire Loire region. Its civic and activist victories have enabled its preservation, but in a context of agricultural decline and a desire to pass on the land, a new approach complementary to regulatory protection must be initiated to ensure long-term protection.

By including landowners in the process, SOS Loire Vivante – ERN aims to create the ” Collective Protection of the Upper Wild Loire Valley,“ a project that will rely on voluntary commitments from each landowner across a valley or large area, using, in particular, Environmental Real Obligations (ORE) [1], as the ”voluntary nature reserve” tool no longer exists.

In order to strengthen the sharing of experiences between landowners in other basins, SOS Loire Vivante – ERN, with around twenty members, visited the Vis Valley in early June to study the case of the Lo Ranquas “voluntary reserve,” a 250-hectare site that is particularly interesting due to its size and the presence of golden eagles. The program included a visit to the reserve with a presentation of the management choices implemented over the past 40 years and a round table discussion with SOS Loire Vivante-ERN, the president of Euronatur, the Horizons Séranne association, and the owners of Ranquas, highlighting the similarities and differences between the situation in the Upper Loire Valley and the Vis Valley in terms of the means for ensuring the long-term sustainability of the ecological management of the sites.

It emerged that Real Environmental Obligations (ORE) are a key tool for ecosystem conservation and sustainable property management. However, in the context of coherent management of large areas and/or with several owners, the associations considered complementary tools, in particular the possibility of creating an endowment fund. This fund would provide additional protection for the areas by offering owners more options and support, such as donations and bequests, and organizing fundraising to ensure the management of the sites. The fund could also play a role in the co-contractualization of OREs and guidance towards appropriate management structures. In the medium term, the coordination of the network of landowners would enable new owners to join a global and regional project. Finally, the fund would make it possible to promote large entities that are collectively and voluntarily protected, whether on the Vis, in the Haute Loire, or elsewhere.

These are very promising discussions, which will naturally be followed up:

More information on the two territories involved in the experiment: Review of the exchange and training days on the voluntary protection of private natural areas

Horizons Séranne | Gîte L’ Aire de la Séranne – Home

Haute Vallée de la Loire – Un lieu à découvrir

 

[1] The ORE is a voluntary land-based environmental protection mechanism that is unique in that it is contractual and can be invoked by any landowner. Codified in Article L. 132-3 of the Environmental Code and included in a contract signed by a notary, it commits the owner of a property (including in the event of a change of ownership) to implement environmental management and protection measures for a period of up to 99 years.


Reserve naturelle du Ranquas ©Corinne Ronot – SOS Loire Vivante


Christian, propriétaire et fondateur de l’association Horizon Séranne, explique les outils de gestion et suivi mis en place ©Corinne Ronot – SOS Loire Vivante

European water resilience strategy: ambition hampered by a lack of concrete commitments

On June 4, 2025, the European Commission presented its EU water resilience strategy, a much-anticipated document at a time when shortages, floods, and pollution are increasingly threatening aquatic ecosystems.

But behind the stated intentions, the content is disappointing.

This document, which is supposed to respond to the call made by the Living Rivers Europe coalition in its recommendations, falls short in several respects. It lacks concrete commitments, clearly identified funding, and truly operational governance tools. After the European Parliament vote on May 7, several NGOs had already expressed doubts about Europe’s ability to provide itself with the means to respond to the water crisis. The strategy reflects the Commission’s view that “the legislative framework is already in place,” based on the Water Framework Directive, the Floods Directive, and the newly adopted Nature Restoration Regulation, yet “persistent implementation failures are holding back progress.”

The text highlights nature-based solutions, but without setting legally binding targets or providing specific budgets for their implementation. The incentives proposed remain too vague to bring about real change. In two separate responses, the EurEau federation and the Living Rivers NGO coalition regretted the absence of targets to reduce water abstraction in the strategy. Such a target was included in a draft version of the communication—which Contexte had published—but was ultimately replaced by a target to improve “water use efficiency” in the final version presented by the Commission on June 4. The efficiency target is vaguely defined: it “provides no baseline, no sectoral roadmap, and no implementation mechanism to achieve it.” The NGO coalition also deplores the fact that the target is not binding in any case.

On pollution, the measures are still too weak, particularly on prevention at source and the application of the polluter pays principle. Yet PFAS, nitrates, and other harmful substances continue to pollute waters across Europe.

The lack of a roadmap for the agricultural sector, combined with the absence of quantified targets by area, weakens the strategy.

As Living Rivers Europe points out, without concrete means or a precise plan, this ambition risks remaining unfulfilled. Meanwhile, pressure on rivers and wetlands continues to worsen.

The coming months will tell whether the Commission and Member States will be able to turn promises into action and take decisions that are commensurate with the challenge.

More infos : read Living Rivers Europe press release

Public consultation to help preparation of the Nature Restauration plans

France is launching a public consultation on its future national plan on the “Nature restaration law.” The plan aims to restore degraded natural environments in accordance with the new European regulation on nature restoration. The European Union’s target is to restore at least 20% of terrestrial and marine areas by 2030, with intermediate stages in 2040 and a final target in 2050.

This project is part of the 2030 National Biodiversity Strategy and prioritizes the most fragile environments such as wetlands, forests, rivers, coastlines, and seabeds.

This consultation is open to everyone: citizens, associations, communities, professionals, and residents concerned. Giving your opinion means contributing to a fairer plan that is better suited to the needs of the regions and more effective in restoring biodiversity. It is also an opportunity to propose ideas and raise awareness of local priorities.

The consultation is being conducted under the responsibility of the National Commission for Public Debate, which guarantees the transparency and impartiality of the process. It will take place from May 23 to August 23, 2025. All relevant information, the calendar of events, and details on how to participate are available on the official website: https://restaurer-la-nature.biodiversite.gouv.fr