Online citizen scientists can ring the ‘fish doorbell’ to open a boat lock in Utrecht to allow fish to move upstream. Image: Robert Oosterbroek / Mark van Heukelum It’s well known that barriers to fish migration are a major issue in rivers across Europe. An innovative scheme in the Netherlands has harnessed the power of online citizen scientists to alert ecologists in Utrecht when fish are congregating behind a boat lock between the rivers Kromme Rhine and Vecht. Visitors to the ‘fish doorbell’ website can then press a button to tell the lock keeper to open the gate to allow the fish through ..read more

Restoration work on the Danube floodplain east of Vienna. Image: viadonau We’re delighted to share the latest episode of the MERLIN podcast with you. Join us on the banks of the Danube River in Austria to hear how ambitious restoration projects are helping free the river from human alterations. We meet Robert Tögel and Alice Kaufmann from viadonau and Silke Drexler from BOKU beside the river to hear about how restoring its banks and side-arms is helping benefit both people and nature. As the trio explain, this work is a process of ‘learning from the river’ to help create space for natural proc ..read more

The Vjosa River in Albania and its tributaries are now protected by a ‘Wild River’ park designed to conserve its free-flowing course. Image: European Wilderness Society After months of debate and revisions the EU Nature Restoration Law was approved by the European Parliament in late February. The law represents an ambitious step towards restoring Europe’s depleted ecosystems, requiring EU countries to restore at least 20% of their land and sea by 2030, and all ecosystems in need of restoration by 2050. The EU Nature Restoration Law is a significant response to the fact that over 80% of Europea ..read more

The MERLIN team. Image: Jörg Strackbein River restorationists from across Europe met last week in Vienna to discuss the progress of the European Green Deal MERLIN project. Over the course of four days, attendees – which included scientists, water managers, finance experts and investors – collaborated in discussions around the seventeen sites across Europe where MERLIN is working to kick-start river restoration with ambitious new approaches. Piret Nõukas from the European Commission addresses the meeting. Image: Jörg Strackbein The discussions – held in the impressive surroundings of the ..read more

Plannel Srl’s Mangrove Technology Platform uses a passive desalinisation system to aid the planting of mangrove forests in arid regions. Image: Planet Srl The winners of the annual MERLIN Innovation Awards – which highlight cutting-edge solutions for freshwater restoration – were announced earlier this month. Entries from organisations across the world were assessed by an expert panel, and shortlists for the two categories – Service of the Year and Product of the Year – were compiled. Two winners were announced at a busy online ceremony on February 8th. The winners of the Product of ..read more

Tractors transported by a barge on the Oude Maas river, a tributary of the River Rhine. Image: Tulumnes | Wikimedia Creative Commons The relationship between agriculture and the environment is a hot topic in Europe right now. In recent months farmers across the continent have been protesting to highlight a system they see as increasingly unprofitable and burdened by EU rules aimed at making the bloc climate-neutral by 2050. Farmers have organised motorway and city blockades in tractors across Greece, Germany, Portugal, Poland and France, and last week pelted the European Parliament in Brussels ..read more

In this episode of the MERLIN Podcast we explore the issues around stream restoration in the Sorraia catchment in Central Portugal. Restoration of the Sorraia river needs to be able to navigate the needs of intensive agriculture in a landscape increasingly affected by the climate crisis. Walking along the banks of the river, we meet a range of freshwater scientists, activists, farmers and policy experts to understand the big issues in the Sorraia catchment, and the ways in which restoration is increasingly making space for this river in the landscape. We also hear about how work on the Sorrai ..read more

Image: Stanley Zimny | Flickr Creative Commons In these early days of the new year, we continue our annual tradition of looking back at the top posts of the previous year. 2023 was a year when the realities of the climate emergency and biodiversity crisis really became apparent, as extreme weather and dire warnings about ecosystem declines made regular front page news across Europe. Throughout the year, we followed the complex and hotly-debated route taken by the ambitious EU Nature Restoration Law towards adoption. If ratified – as it looks as will happen early this year – the law commit ..read more

The EU Nature Restoration Law has taken a complex and sometimes rocky path towards adoption. Image: Milos Golubovic | Flickr Creative Commons Last month, the ambitious EU Nature Restoration Law moved a step closed to adoption following a provisional agreement between policy makers. Originally proposed in June 2022, the law obligates European countries to restore at least 20% of their land and seas by 2030, and all ecosystems in need of restoration by 2050. Earlier this month, researchers from four major EU environmental restoration projects published an article in Science assessing the promise ..read more

Freshwater ecosystems – such as the Pantanal wetlands in South America – are both impacted by climate change and critical to mitigating its wider effects. Image: WWF A new climate deal was struck yesterday at COP28 in Dubai, which includes a clear imperative for global countries to transition away from fossil fuel use in order to acheive net zero emissions by 2050. Produced through extensive negotiations between global nations, the deal emphasises “the need for deep, rapid and sustained reductions in greenhouse gas emissions” in order to limit global warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial ..read more