Twelve projects will demonstrate the resilience of rivers and the benefits to be realised by removing dams.
The European Open Rivers Programme officially supports 19 small dam removals across 11 countries that will open approximately 386 kilometres of Europe’s rivers. Included in the supported interventions are the first-ever barrier removals in Latvia and Slovenia!
Removing a weir in a Natura 2000 site and restoring important habitats for near threatened species like the Eurasian otter in Slovakia; recovering access to good potential upstream habitat for migratory fish species in the Tee catchment in the UK; returning a river in Latvia to its natural state, contributing to reaching Good Ecological Status as defined in the European Water Framework Directive; restoring natural flows of water, sediments and nutrients in a river within a special conservation zone in Spain…these are a few examples of the projects the European Open Rivers Programme is supporting in its first grant-giving cycle.
These dam removals are a step closer to realising the programme’s vision of creating free-flowing rivers with healthy, diverse, and connected ecosystems across Europe.
Learn more about each project. More information and details will be available on our website soon.
