We provide financial support to projects that maximise the potential for restoring endangered rivers across Europe.
One cost-effective and swift solution to enhance river continuity and consequently promote the flow of biota (plants and animals) and sediment is dam removal. This river restoration measure can improve water quality, habitat connectivity, and resilience. And with over one million barriers in European rivers, prioritising dam removal is essential. That is why the programme’s primary focus is eliminating as many obsolete dams as possible from European rivers. To achieve this, the programme supports:
The overarching goal is biodiversity restoration, and our strategies are centred on maximising the potential to achieve this objective. Our approach considers supporting projects that:
Our programme awards grants to support projects aimed at small dam removal to restore river flow and biodiversity. Our grants are designed to:
Facilitate the removal of small dams in catchments that offer the highest potential for river restoration and ecosystem recovery.
Support pre-demolition work in catchments, including project development, feasibility studies, technical design provision, and securing permissions and permits for dam removal.
Offer various interventions to prepare small dam removal projects with high ecological potential for third-party removal.
Further enable the European dam removal movement and encourage wider acceptance and implementation of dam removal practices.
In addition to our grant-making activities, our programme also undertakes the following initiatives: