MERLIN: Bringing Europe’s freshwaters back to life

The MERLIN project held its first all-partner meeting last week in Fulda, Germany. Scientists, restoration managers and industry stakeholders all took part in valuable discussions over how best to mainstream freshwater restoration in Europe.

A new video exploring the key issues around the project was premiered at the meeting. A collaboration between the Schneeaufmoss creative agency and MERLIN partners, the video outlines five key challenges for contemporary freshwater restoration, and how the project is tackling them. Packed with beautiful footage of the continent’s waterways, the video is narrated by Christian Cummins of FM4 Radio.

The new video follows the recent launch of the first MERLIN podcast. A second podcast was recorded at the meeting, exploring ideas around transformation, disruption and inspiration as drivers of freshwater restoration. This second podcast will be released in the coming weeks.

MERLIN Questionnaire

MERLIN researchers also launched a new questionnaire seeking to better understand shared goals around river restoration.

“We want to identify landscape and policy interventions that can help practitioners across agriculture, hydropower, insurance, navigation, peat extraction and water supply sectors tackle their own challenges, while contributing to achieve EU Green Deal objectives,” says Dr. Alhassan Ibrahim from the James Hutton Institute. “These objectives include climate resilience, improved biodiversity, zero pollution, sustainable food systems, health and wellbeing.”

“The responses to the questionnaire will help us to understand Europe’s environmental and policy needs and opportunities for mainstreaming nature-based solutions in the sectors,” continues Dr. Ibrahim. “We will draw from the results and other data sources – such as policy interviews and roundtables – to develop strategies and a route map to overcome the challenges in the economic sectors and harness the opportunities for win-win solutions.”

You can complete the questionnaire here (updated 17.10.22: questionnaire now closed).

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This article is supported by the MERLIN project.