This section shares resources highlighting best practice approaches to removing dams and restoring rivers.
Prepared by ClientEarth (June 2026), this report analyses three legal frameworks - Polish, Finnish and French - compares them and identifies legal recommendations for legal solutions that could be broadly used by different Member States in order to reach the barrier target.
The Nature Conservancy, together with WWF Adria, led two workshops to educate practitioners on the enabling conditions, needed background work, cautions, and construction processes involved with dam removal. The goal was to help local partners understand the processes to identify projects and ensure they are successfully planned, permitted, and executed.
A pan-European survey to strengthen and improve policies and strategic planning regarding river continuity restoration. The outcomes from a survey investigating the recognition of river continuity in national policies and the potential for river restoration in different European countries.
A synthesis of considerations to make when determining if a dam should be removed, divided into four areas of consideration: a) ecological, b) economic, c) societal, and d) technical/engineering.
The document aims to clarify the interpretation of the targets within the EC’s 2030 Biodiversity Strategy, elaborate on the concept of free-flowing rivers and develop a common understanding of how this target is linked to the other major objectives for river management. It also offers an overview of existing methods that could be adapted and used to support the identification and prioritisation of sites where barriers could be removed to restore, insofar as possible, river connectivity, their wetlands and floodplains to contribute to the achievement of the Biodiversity Strategy’s targets.
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