Promises and pitfalls of the EU Nature Restoration Law
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 promises and pitfalls of the proposed law, which is expected to be approved in a final vote early in 2024.
It is widely acknowledged that the magnitude of the biodiversity crisis and climate emergency requires rapid and ambitious attempts to conserve and restore Europe’s ecosystems. Research is increasingly showing how such measures aren’t only good for nature, but for people too: as healthy, resilient ecosystems bring significant benefits to our everyday lives in society.
Writing in Science, the authors of the new paper highlight that the Nature Restoration Law acknowledges the failure of existing EU policy and legislation to halt biodiversity losses, and the pressing need for new policies which can help Europe meet the targets of international environmental agreements.
The authors outline that the promise of the Nature Restoration Law meeting its aims will be strongly shaped by how it coheres with existing European legislation and policies. This ‘policy coherence’ includes supporting the goals of existing environmental policies – such as the Habitats Directive and Water Framework Directive – and better integrating environmental concerns into other policy areas.
One key attribute of the Nature Restoration Law is its ambitious targets, timelines and implementation steps towards 2030, 2040 and 2050. However, the authors of the new paper highlight that the success of the law hinges on prompt action, and the rapid deployment of effective management measures to allow nature to recover.
“The NRL avoids several pitfalls that often obstruct the implementation of European policies and regulations, showing that the Commission learned from past experiences,” said lead author Daniel Hering from the MERLIN project. “The regulation sets ambitious targets and timelines, and implementation steps are clearly laid out. It also saves time as it does not need to be transposed into national law.”
As Prof. Hering cites, the Nature Restoration Law is designed to be quickly adopted by European countries. One key strategy for this adoption is through National Restoration Plans, which obligate member states to prepare restoration plans to achieve the targets laid down in the law.
The authors highlight the vast potential of the Nature Restoration Law to boost the implementation of existing European environmental directives and policies. They state that the law is “broad but targets specific ecosystem types with tailor-made approaches… [which] may therefore have impacts beyond the targeted ecosystem.” For example, the restoration of agricultural land can benefit rivers and lakes. In other words, the large-scale restoration of European ecosystems could spark a domino effect of nature recovery across different landscapes.
Accordingly, the authors suggest that whilst the Nature Restoration Law may appear ‘conservative’ in its focus on the protection and restoration of habitats – rather than more contemporary holistic and adaptive approaches – it holds considerable potential to catalyse such large-scale nature recovery. Moreover, the authors state that whilst contemporary ecosystem-based approaches and nature-based solutions are only briefly mentioned in the law, it holds significant capacity to help support the widespread social benefits they can catalyse through restoration.
The authors suggest that the lofty ambition of the Nature Restoration Law and the clear targets and timelines towards achieving its goals it contains offer explanations for its slow and contested path towards adoption. Lobby groups – particularly from agricultural organisations – have argued for its provisions to be watered-down throughout the process.
Implementing the Nature Restoration Law across agricultural landscapes is thus a key challenge to overcome. “Intensive agriculture is still a key driver for biodiversity loss in Europe”, said co-author Guy Pe’er from the Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research (UFZ). “But targets for agriculture and nature restoration could be coordinated, with opportunities for both.”
More broadly, the authors identify that a recurring problem with the implementation of European environmental policies is that gap between targets and effective implementation options. They highlight that the Nature Restoration Law must be implemented by European countries following strict procedures and resilient funding structures in order to give it the best chance of success.
However, there is significant work for European countries to do on bringing groups of land and water owners, managers and funders together to achieve these goals together. “While targets are precisely defined and binding, the steps to achieve them need to be decided by individual European countries and most of them are voluntary” said co-author Josef Settele from the Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research (UFZ).
The authors conclude that the ambition and rapid timescale of the Nature Restoration Law is to be welcomed, but its success will hinge on how well it is translated into action. This process requires strong policy, which supports existing European legislation, and stable long-term funding streams to allow for the gradual recovery of nature across the continent.
They write: “Given the urgency of global crises, Europe cannot afford to delay; the opportunity to install and implement an ambitious law, and the opportunity to show global leadership, should not be missed.”
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The authorship of the paper includes the coordinators of the projects MERLIN, WaterLANDS, SUPERB and REST-COAST that are all funded by the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 programme under the topic “Restoring biodiversity and ecosystem services” (LC-GD-7-1-2020).
This article is supported by the MERLIN project.
Climate deal struck at COP28 as research shows nearly a quarter of global freshwater fish at risk of extinction
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 levels.
After nearly 30 years of COP meetings, this is the first time a deal has explicitly called for the transition away from global fossil fuel use. The deal – a first ‘global stocktake’ following the Paris Agreement at the 2015 COP21 – calls on countries to contribute to a global tripling of renewable energy capacity and doubling of energy efficiency improvements by 2030.
However, many climate campaigners believe the deal does not reflect the scale and urgency of fossil fuel reductions required to keep the planet within safe climatic limits in the future. The language of ‘transition away’ is weaker than that of a definitive ‘phasing out’, particularly in a world where fossil fuel producers are planning major expansions in production.
Moreover, the deal cites the need to expand the use of carbon capture and utilisation and storage (CCUS) technologies. This is seen by climate campaigners as a concession to lobbyists from fossil fuel states such as Saudi Arabia, who see carbon capture and storage as a way of continuing their lucrative petrochemical extraction businesses.
The importance of mitigating the scale of climate change and its impacts on global biodiversity and ecosystems is repeatedly flagged in the deal. The value of ecosystem-based adaptions and nature-based solutions in helping build climate change resilience is highlighted in the deal, but for some experts, this focus could be stronger.
‘A significant development is the inclusion of an explicit reference to the Kunming Biodiversity Global Biodiversity Framework agreed at the UN Convention of Biological Diversity,” said Professor Nathalie Seddon from the University of Oxford. “However, there is a lack of language on the importance of guidelines for high-integrity nature-based solutions, that ensure local benefits for people and biodiversity as cornerstones of resilience in a warming world.”
Limiting climate change is vital for safeguarding the future of freshwater biodiversity and ecosystems, as the publication of the new IUCN Red List starkly demonstrates. Published earlier this week, the new Red List assessment shows that nearly a quarter of the world’s freshwater fish are at risk of extinction due to climate change, pollution and overfishing.
The report shows that at least 17% of all threatened freshwater fish species are impacted by climate change, including decreasing water levels, rising sea levels causing seawater to move up rivers, and shifting seasons.
“It is shocking that one quarter of all freshwater fish are now threatened with extinction and that climate change is now recognised as a significant contributing factor to their extinction risk,” said Dr Barney Long, Re:wild’s Senior Director of Conservation Strategies, who contributed to the research. “It is critical that we better safeguard our freshwater systems as they are not only home to precious and irreplaceable wildlife, but also provide humans with so many services that only the natural world can.”
One headline story from the report is that the Atlantic salmon – previously common across northern Europe and North America and classified as ‘least concern’ – is now at ‘near threatened’ by extinction. Research for the Red List shows that global populations of Atlantic salmon fell by 23% between 2006 and 2020. This is due to a complex mix of threats to the fish – including climate change, overfishing, pollution, dam production and aquaculture – at all life stages, and over vast geographical areas.
“Climate change is menacing the diversity of life our planet harbours, and undermining nature’s capacity to meet basic human needs,” said Dr Grethel Aguilar, IUCN Director General. “This IUCN Red List update highlights the strong links between the climate and biodiversity crises, which must be tackled jointly. Species declines are an example of the havoc being wreaked by climate change, which we have the power to stop with urgent, ambitious action to keep warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius.”
A major new initiative to help safeguard freshwater ecosystems from the threat of climate change received a boost this week, as 37 countries joined the Freshwater Challenge. The scheme aims to ensure that 300,000km of degraded rivers and 350 million hectares of degraded wetlands are committed to restoration by 2030, whilst other global freshwater ecosystems are protected.
The new countries – from Africa, Asia, Europe, North and South America, and the Pacific – were announced at the COP28 conference, joining the six countries that launched the initiative at the UN 2023 Water Conference in New York – Colombia, DR Congo, Ecuador, Gabon, Mexico and Zambia.
“With the climate crisis fuelling ever more extreme floods, storms, wildfires and droughts, we urgently need to invest in protecting and restoring our rivers, lakes and wetlands,” said HE Razan Al Mubarak, UN Climate Change High-Level Champion for COP28. “They are the best natural protection for our societies and economies as well as major carbon stores. Rising to the Freshwater Challenge is key to tackling climate change, but it is also essential to pave the way to a net-zero, nature-positive and resilient future for all.”
“Healthy rivers, lakes and wetlands are our best buffer and insurance against the worsening impacts of climate change,” added Stuart Orr, WWF Global Freshwater Lead. “Investing in their protection and restoration will produce the most important returns: strengthening climate adaptation and reducing disaster risk as well as increasing water and food security, and reversing the catastrophic decline in freshwater biodiversity. But we need to find new pathways to address this urgently.”
MERLIN Podcast EP. 5 – How economic thinking can help us restore Europe’s freshwaters
In October 2023, the WWF released a major report stating that freshwater has long been significantly undervalued in global economies, leading to widespread environmental costs. The report estimates that the annual economic value of water and freshwater ecosystems globally is $58 trillion – a figure equivalent to 60% of global Gross Domestic Product (or GDP). This startling figure was calculated by estimating the economic value that rivers, streams, lakes, reservoirs and wetlands generate to human societies.
The report showed that freshwater ecosystems are not only vital for sustaining everyday societies, but they also provide invaluable life-support systems which help maintain the health of both people and the planet. In this episode of the MERLIN podcast co-hosts Rob St John and Sien Kok deep-dive into key topics around the economics of water.
Rob and Sien explore how economic thinking can help make more informed decisions about how to manage freshwater ecosystems, and similarly how it can strengthen arguments over the pressing need to conserve and restore them.
We hear expert perspectives from three individuals working in water economics in Europe – Eduard Interwies, Phillipe Le Coent and Rob van der Veeren – alongside an ecologist’s perspective from MERLIN project leader Daniel Hering.
The interviews introduce key concepts such as cost-benefit analysis, water pricing and the polluter pays principle, and how they relate to policies like the EU Nature Restoration Law and Water Framework Directive, and environmental management approaches like nature-based solutions.
You can also listen and subscribe to the podcast on Spotify, Amazon, and Apple Podcasts. Stay tuned for the next episode soon!
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This article is supported by the MERLIN project.
European Nature Restoration Law takes significant step towards adoption
A provisional agreement was reached on a major EU law supporting the ambitious ecological restoration of Europe’s land, water and seas last week.
The path to the adoption of the EU Nature Restoration Law has been long and complex. Originally proposed in June 2022, the law was designed to obligate European countries to restore at least 20% of their land and seas by 2030, and eventually extend measures to all ecosystems in need of restoration by 2050.
The poor condition of many European ecosystems and the worsening climate crisis mean there is a critical and urgent need for large-scale ecological restoration across the continent. However, the Nature Restoration Law has faced sustained criticism from lobbying groups concerned with its impacts on food production, with the European People’s Party (EPP) chief negotiator, Christine Schneider labelling it as “an attack on European agriculture, forestry and fisheries.”
In July 2023, the European Parliament adopted the Nature Restoration Law after a narrow vote, following months of lobbying and debate. Last week, a provisional agreement was reached between the European Parliament and the Council on the Nature Restoration Law to set the formal adoption of the law in motion.
Negotiators agreed on the targets for EU countries to restore 20% of their land and seas by 2030, and all ecosystems in need of restoration by 2050. To achieve these goals, countries must restore at least 30% of habitat types in poor condition by 2030, increasing to 60% by 2040, and 90% by 2050.
“We are faced with an increasingly dramatic reality: EU’s nature and biodiversity are in danger and need to be protected,” said Teresa Ribera Rodríguez, Minister for the Ecological Transition of Spain. “I am proud of today’s indispensable agreement between the Council and Parliament on a nature restoration law, the first of its kind. It will help us rebuild healthy biodiversity levels across member states and preserve nature for the future generations, while fighting climate change and remaining committed to our climate goals.”
Freshwater ecosystems will benefit from the adoption of the Nature Restoration Law. The law states that EU countries should identify and remove human-made barriers such as weirs and dams, in order to make at least 25,000km of the continent’s rivers free-flowing by 2030. Moreover, there are significant provisions to expand and improve European forest ecosystems and urban green areas – which play vital roles in supporting the health of river catchments.
However, concessions have been made in the law to appease the concerns of agricultural lobbying groups. The new text removes a requirement that would have ensured that 10% of farmland contained biodiversity habitat such as flower strips and hedgerows. Similarly, a new line adds that countries are not obliged to use EU farming funds to support nature recovery projects.
These concessions have impacted how peatlands – vital stores of carbon, havens for biodiversity, and buffers for flood waters – will be rewetted across the continent. The law sets targets for countries to restore 30% of their drained peatlands under agricultural use by 2030, rising to 40% by 2040 and 50% by 2050. However, negotiators agreed that countries that are ‘strongly affected’ by such measures can work towards less ambitious targets. Moreover, the law does not obligate farmers and private landowners to achieve the rewetting targets on their land.
The Nature Restoration Law is an integral part of the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030. More widely, it is designed to help the EU reach international commitments to the restoration of nature, particularly the UN Kunming-Montreal global biodiversity framework – to protect 30% of the planet by 2030 – agreed at the UN COP15 conference in 2022.
One strategy adopted by proponents of the law has been to cite the economic benefits of large-scale restoration across Europe. Their cost benefit analysis suggests that every Euro spent on restoration provides a return on investment between €8 and €38 depending on the ecosystem. For freshwaters, it is estimated that €35–40 billion in investment into restoration will generate between €862 to 1053 billion in return. This is due to the benefits that healthy, functioning freshwaters provide to society: things like water purification, flood protection, fish stocks, and climate change mitigation. In other words, this analysis suggests that large-scale freshwater restoration doesn’t only make environmental sense, it makes economic sense too.
The Nature Restoration Law must now be formally adopted by the European parliament and council. Once adopted, EU countries will submit national restoration plans showing how they will deliver on their targets towards 2050. Additionally, countries will be encouraged to explore private and public funding sources to help finance restoration measures.
However, the “biggest hurdle” for the law is potentially yet to come, according to Chiara Martinelli, Director of Climate Action Network Europe. “While we are glad to have a provisional institutional joint agreement before the end of the year, restoration obligations are yet to be assessed,” Martinelli said. “There is also the biggest hurdle still to come which will be its adoption by the Parliament’s Environment committee. We call on MEPs to vote for the approval of the agreement, so Member States can immediately reverse the degradation trend in European ecosystems and jointly tackle the climate and biodiversity crises.”
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This article is supported by the MERLIN project.
Working with nature to shape a healthier future for Europe’s rivers
Europe’s rivers are under threat from numerous pressures including habitat loss, pollution and dam construction, which are all occurring alongside the rapidly growing impacts of the climate crisis. There is a pressing need to change how we manage our river catchments to ensure both nature and human communities can thrive.
Recent research strongly suggests that natural processes can play a vital role in shaping new approaches to managing our rivers and floodplains. So-called nature-based solutions harness and boost natural processes to help benefit both people and nature.
For example, natural buffering of flooding can be encouraged by reconnecting a river with its floodplains after years of being trapped in concrete channels. Or the availability of safe, filtered drinking water might be increased by restoring wetlands which can naturally filter water across a catchment. And planting so-called ‘riparian zones’ of trees and other vegetation along river banks can help provide valuable biodiversity habitat, keep water bodies cool, and lock up carbon to help mitigate climate change.
In short, by helping nature thrive, nature-based solutions can help tackle some of the most pressing issues faced by humanity, such as climate change, human health and sustainable food and water provision.
These lofty goals are increasingly backed up by evidence. A 2020 WWF report outlines how nature-based solutions are vital to help reduce risks from extreme river flooding, manage water scarcity and drought risk, and improve water quality in catchments. A 2021 Deltares report shows that nature-based solutions can help drive climate change adaptation. It highlights that ‘making room for rivers’ by restoring their natural flows across floodplains is the most sustainable and cost-effective solution to mitigate the effects of worsening floods across Europe.
The MERLIN project recently released a new infographic showing the value of nature-based solutions to help restore Europe’s rivers. Its ‘Vision for Europe’s rivers’ illustrates how five different kinds of management measures can help produce a range of valuable benefits for people and nature.
The infographic shows how nature-based solutions can be deployed all the way along a river catchment. In the mountainous headwaters, it illustrates how ‘rewiggling’ rivers across their natural floodplains can help boost biodiversity and provide valuable spaces for recreation. Further downstream, it shows how measures such as ‘green cities’ and wetland restoration can help buffer flood and drought risks, and help boost carbon storage in the landscape.
You can access versions of this infographic in multiple languages on the MERLIN website.
A drop on a hot stone? Making space for stream restoration in Portugal
The MERLIN project is supporting nature-based solutions in freshwater restoration projects across Europe. The restoration of streams across the Sorraia floodplains in Portugal takes place in landscapes significantly affected by intensive agriculture and the ongoing climate emergency. As such, there is the need for ambitious new restoration approaches which draw communities of scientists, farmers and policy makers together to help bring these special ecosystems back to life.
This film was shot in October 2023 as a group of researchers from the EU MERLIN project visited the Sorraia floodplains to meet local restorationists and farmers, and to see stream restoration projects in action. The Sorraia is one of MERLIN’s case study sites used to help demonstrate how forward-thinking freshwater restoration approaches can be mainstreamed across Europe.
You can also access this video with Portuguese subtitles here.
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This article is supported by the MERLIN project.
The High Cost of Cheap Water: annual economic value of global freshwater ecosystems estimated at $58 trillion
Freshwater is “the world’s most precious and exploited resource” but has always been significantly undervalued in global economies, leading to widespread environmental costs, according to a major new WWF report published this week.
The report estimates that the annual economic value of water and freshwater ecosystems globally is $58 trillion – a figure equivalent to 60% of global Gross Domestic Product (GDP). This startling figure was calculated by estimating the financial value that rivers, streams, lakes, reservoirs and wetlands generate to human societies. Direct economic benefits including water for household drinking, cooking and cleaning, irrigation for agriculture, and to supply industries was calculated at $7.5 trillion each year.
However, the indirect – and often invisible – benefits freshwaters bring to human societies are significantly higher. The report estimates that such indirect values – including purifying water, increasing soil health, storing carbon and buffering communities from floods and droughts – are around $50 trillion annually.
In other words, freshwater ecosystems are not only vital for sustaining everyday societies, but they also provide invaluable life-support systems which help maintain the health of both people and the planet.
“Water and freshwater ecosystems are not only fundamental to our economies, they are also the lifeblood of our planet and our future,” said Stuart Orr, WWF Global Freshwater Lead. “We need to remember that water doesn’t come from a tap – it comes from nature. Water for all depends on healthy freshwater ecosystems, which are also the foundation of food security, biodiversity hotspots and the best buffer and insurance against intensifying climate impacts. Reversing the loss of freshwater ecosystems will pave the way to a more resilient, nature-positive and sustainable future for all.”
Freshwater ecosystems across the world are increasingly threatened by human pressures such as habitat loss, pollution and over-extraction, all of which are exacerbated by the ongoing effects of the climate emergency. As previous WWF reports have shown, freshwater biodiversity has dropped on average by 83% since 1970, whilst one-third of global wetlands have been lost over the same time period. Currently, two-thirds of the world’s largest rivers are no longer free flowing, and wetlands continue to be lost at a rate three times faster than forests.
“The alarming impacts from droughts, floods, decline of critical species, and water availability for human use and agriculture are staggering,” said Michele Thieme, WWF Deputy Director for Freshwater. “There is still an opportunity to lessen and even prevent these impacts from causing further acute harm, but we must take action now to safeguard these vital life supporting ecosystems.”
It’s clear that for decades human societies have continually undervalued freshwater ecosystems, and as such failed to properly protect them from harm. And, as this week’s World Food Day theme of ‘Water is Food’ emphasises, it is vital to address this water crisis in order to ensure food security for the world’s growing population. As a recent FAO report shows, around 2.4 billion people globally face moderate or severe food insecurity, whilst half the world experiences water shortages at least once each month.
The key challenge is to better value the life-support systems water provides to global communities, as a means of making its use more sustainable, and its protections more effective. The WWF report calls for global governments, businesses and financial institutions to urgently increase investments into sustainable water infrastructure and nature-based solutions. At the same time, there is the pressing need for effective water governance which can ambitiously conserve and restore freshwater ecosystems, whilst equitably allocating water to the communities which need it.
A valuable initiative for achieving this goal is the Freshwater Challenge, which aims to better integrate freshwater restoration into national policies and planning frameworks. The initiative aims to set ambitious restoration targets which are then mainstreamed into national policy. Further, it seeks to foster support and collaboration between all organisations and communities involved in restoration, and to better mobilise resources to help achieve these targets. Launched earlier this year, the Freshwater Challenge proposes to be the largest global freshwater restoration initiative in history, with aims of restoring 300,000km of degraded rivers and 350 million hectares of degraded wetlands by 2030, and conserving intact freshwater ecosystems, and has been adopted by numerous countries across the Global South.
“Water is one of the cornerstones upon which our shared future stands,” said Dr Kirsten Schuijt, WWF International’s Director-General. “WWF’s report reveals the staggering underlying value of water and freshwater ecosystems to our global economy and environment. Healthy rivers, lakes and wetlands are essential for water and food security, adapting to climate change and sustaining biodiversity, but they also provide priceless cultural and spiritual values that are vital to people’s wellbeing worldwide. It is time for governments, businesses, and financial institutions to invest in protecting and restoring our freshwater ecosystems to ensure we build a future where water flows in abundance for all.”
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Read the WWF “High Cost of Cheap Water” report
Last week, researchers from the MERLIN project working on the restoration of small streams across Europe met in Lisbon, Portugal to discuss progress and visit case study sites. Following exchanges at the University of Lisbon, the group visited restoration projects in the Sorraia and Ervidel catchments.
With the MERLIN project at the half-way point, discussions centred on how to measure the impacts of restoration projects, and how to gain support from policy makers and financiers to upscale their use across Europe.
Working with the concept of nature-based solutions, the indicators of restoration impact used by MERLIN are not only environmental, but also social and economic. This means that researchers are not only monitoring how restoration is affecting factors like biodiversity and greenhouse gas emissions at their sites, but also how it impacts things like green job creation and private finance mobilisation. The idea is to help build a convincing case for upscaling freshwater restoration across Europe by showing that it can benefit people as well as nature.
As a result, there were also in-depth discussions around leveraging new funding sources for freshwater restoration. Many of these exchanges focused on the potential of private – or non-governmental – sources of funding, whether through donations, in-kind contributions, restoration services or commercial activities such as tourism or insurance.
The plan is to better integrate nature-positive approaches into European economies to help address the growing ecological and climate emergencies. As a result, MERLIN researchers are developing a model to allow restoration managers to map their financial needs, and to provide guidance on the range of funding and revenue options available to them.
This ambitious vision also needs the support of policy makers and industry stakeholders, and MERLIN researchers are working to ensure that the value of nature-based solutions in restoration is widely understood. This means working to develop new governance and participation approaches and fostering a more enabling European policy environment, whether in the application of existing policies like the Common Agricultural Policy, or the development of new ones, such as the Nature Restoration Law.
The MERLIN case studies have a vital role in providing the evidence for this transformative vision, and researchers travelled south from Lisbon to see two Portuguese examples. The Sorraia catchment is intensively managed for agriculture, with upstream reservoirs storing and allocating water to farmers for irrigation using a range of responsive new technologies.
Much of the restoration management along the Sorraia is focused on the riparian zones around the catchment’s streams. Here, invasive species such as the exotic giant reed are being cleared, and native trees and flowers are being planted to improve the habitat for biodiversity. In addition, streams in the Sorraia catchment are bisected by numerous river crossings, weirs and fords, which can impede the movement of fish across the catchment. As a result, fish passes are being installed in some of these barrier structures.
Further south, the Ervidel catchment is similarly dominated by the water needs of farmers. Between crop fields and olive plantations, researchers visited small streams flowing along courses heavily altered for drainage. The streams here are temporary and can be dry for between two and six months each year. Here, restoration focuses on the rehabilitation of river bed habitats, and the maintenance of minimum water flows throughout the year, alongside the replanting of riparian zones. As in the Sorraia catchment, this work requires close collaboration with agriculture and hydropower sectors to make a convincing case for the need for ambitious restoration.
Reflecting on the week, Professor Teresa Ferreira, leader of the Sorraia case study, from the University of Lisbon said: “Transformative change in restoration means sharing experiences and feelings for improving the way we see, use and protect nature. It means understanding different points of view and interests, potentially conflictual, but being able to address such divergences and still find common ground for something better than what already exists. Understanding different perspectives is a powerful tool for transformation, and we need it to break our cocoons of thought and create a stronghold of willingness to change.
“The MERLIN meeting and the trip to the Sorraia case study was such an experience. Mediterranean floodplains are often spoken about, but seldom perceived by other Europeans. Shaped by agricultural activities, the floodplains need restorative actions that ecologists are well aware of in order to get a proper ecological functioning and natural biodiversity, but these actions are constrained by the needs of crops and the limitations of water and space. Understanding such limitations is a key factor for successful restoration, while innovative solutions must be shown to the farmers, such as nature-based solutions and retro-innovations, something they can understand and use, and help them cross legislative obstacles and knowledge gaps.
“We’ve also been seeing intensive agricultural systems in the Mediterranean where water availability plays a key role. In the southernmost region of Ervidel, environmental constraints, climatic drought and water demand for crops, are extreme. Water management and agriculture compete over riverine territory to the point that protective riparian structures often are missing. Transformation towards higher agricultural productivity in this region came with constant water supply from reservoirs, and nature-based solutions or freshwater restoration are not top priorities. We need MERLIN to demonstrate the alternatives.
“I believe with the Sorraia case study visit and landscape observations, we got richer both as restoration practitioners and as humans,” Prof. Ferreira concluded.
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This article is supported by the MERLIN project.
Warming rivers are losing oxygen faster than the oceans
Climate change is causing rivers across to warm and lose oxygen at a rate faster than the oceans, according to a new study. The study, published in Nature Climate Change shows that warming occurred in 87% – and oxygen loss in 70% – of nearly 800 rivers in the USA and Central Europe between 1981 and 2019.
Urban rivers are warming most rapidly, whilst rivers in agricultural areas are losing oxygen most rapidly, the study states. The latter finding is likely influenced by the algal blooms caused by nutrient pollution in many agricultural landscapes. Often driven by warming water temperatures, algal blooms can deplete water bodies of oxygen when they die and decompose.
Oxygen is crucial in supporting the webs of life that inhabit freshwaters. If dissolved oxygen levels in river water dip too low then species of plants, animals, fish and insects will all struggle to survive. Whilst it has been well documented that oceans and lakes have been losing oxygen due to climate warming, it has been widely thought that – because of their flowing water – rivers were less vulnerable to its impacts.
The study’s findings has significant implications for the health of rivers across Europe and the USA, and is a stark warning of the urgent need for their restoration in order to buffer the harmful effects of climate change. Warming rivers with depleted oxygen levels are vulnerable to fish die-offs and drops in water quality, which can have significant knock-on impacts on local livelihoods through impacted fisheries and tourism.
“This is a wake-up call,” said Prof. Li Li, corresponding author on the paper from Penn State. “We know that a warming climate has led to warming and oxygen loss in oceans, but did not expect this to happen in flowing, shallow rivers. This is the first study to take a comprehensive look at temperature change and deoxygenation rates in rivers — and what we found has significant implications for water quality and the health of aquatic ecosystems worldwide.”
The research team used a deep learning model – a type of artificial intelligence analysis – to reconstruct daily water temperature and dissolved oxygen levels in the 796 studied rivers between 1981 and 2019. They found that on average, rivers were warming by 0.16 deg C per decade in USA rivers, and 0.27 deg C per decade in Central European rivers. Deoxygenation rates were between 1–1.5% of loss per decade – faster than those in oceans, but slower than those in lakes.
“Riverine water temperature and dissolved oxygen levels are essential measures of water quality and ecosystem health,” said Dr. Wei Zhi, lead author of the study, from Penn State. “Yet they are poorly understood because they are hard to quantify due to the lack of consistent data across different rivers and the myriad of variables involved that can change oxygen levels in each watershed.”
The authors highlight that as river water temperatures increase, their ability to hold gases is reduced. They suggest that ongoing climate warming could thus spark even more significant drops in dissolved oxygen in rivers in the future. Their models suggest that future deoxygenation rates across all rivers will be between 1.6 and 2.5 times higher than historical rates. They suggest that within the next 70 years, many river systems – particularly this in the American South – are likely to experience periods of acutely low levels of oxygen which cause significant deaths in fish populations.
“If you think about it, life in water relies on temperature and dissolved oxygen, the lifeline for all aquatic organisms,” said Prof. Li. “We know that coastal areas, like the Gulf of Mexico, often have dead zones in the summer. What this study shows us is this could happen in rivers as well, because some rivers will no longer sustain life like before.”
“The loss of oxygen in rivers is unexpected because we usually assume rivers do not lose oxygen as much as in big water bodies like lakes and oceans, but we found that rivers are rapidly losing oxygen,” continued Prof. Li. “That was really alarming, because if the oxygen levels get low enough, it becomes dangerous for aquatic life.”
The study is a clear signal for the need to better manage our freshwaters to help mitigate the harmful effects of climate warming. On a large scale, it reinforces the urgent need for deep cuts in greenhouse gas emissions in order to minimise climate warming over the coming decades. On a smaller scale it emphasises the important role of restoration projects which expand riparian vegetation and woodland along river banks to help keep their water flows cool.
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This article is supported by the MERLIN project.
MERLIN Podcast Episode 4 – Mainstreaming freshwater nature-based solutions across economic sectors
Nature-based solutions are a hot topic right now. So-called ‘NbS’ are environmental management approaches that use natural processes to help tackle socio-environmental challenges such as climate change, biodiversity loss, flooding, food production and health and wellbeing.
The MERLIN project explores how the benefits from nature-based solutions can help foster collaborations between different economic sectors to help mainstream freshwater restoration. MERLIN works with representatives from six economic sectors – agriculture, hydropower, insurance, navigation, peat extraction, and water supply and sanitation – to encourage the adoption of nature-based solutions in their activities across Europe.
MERLIN project partners recently released a briefing exploring how nature-based solutions are understood across these sectors in Europe, and – vitally – how they might help encourage collaborations which strengthen restoration efforts.
In this podcast, host Rob St John speaks to project partners who work with these sectors, and in doing so, explore the key issues highlighted in the briefing. Rob talks to: Esther Carmen (Hutton Institute), Sanja Pokrajac (WWF Central and Eastern Europe), Alhassan Ibrahim (Hutton Institute), Jack Rieley (International Peatland Society), Tamas Gruber (WWF Hungary), Kirsty Blackstock (Hutton Institute) and Mia Ebeltoft (MERLIN).
You can also listen and subscribe to the podcast on Spotify, Amazon, and Apple Podcasts. Stay tuned for the next episode soon!
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This article is supported by the MERLIN project.
Urbanisation is a key driver of freshwater fish declines in rivers across Europe and the USA, according to a new study. An international team of scientists assessed data from over 30,000 sites across the two continents to examine how fish populations respond to different human land-uses in river catchments.
Freshwater fish are threatened by multiple human pressures across the world. However, the ways in which fish are affected by pressures – such as pollution and habitat loss – can vary in different areas. As such, there is a need to better understand how fish populations respond to different stressors caused by human activity on a continental scale, in order to support effective conservation strategies.
The authors of the new study – published in Science of the Total Environment – used large-scale datasets to assess how the frequency and severity of different human stressors affects river fish populations. Their results paint a clear picture of the impacts of intensive human activity on river ecosystems.
“Overall, urbanisation and human population density most frequently lead to a significant decrease in fish populations,” says lead author Rafaela Schinegger, Assistant Professor for Nature Conservation Planning at BOKU in Austria. “In Europe, urban land use was also identified as the most severe stressor, whilst in the USA, we more often identified agricultural land use as the most severe one.”
Urbanisation and intensive agriculture can cause a wide range of stressors on river ecosystems. Urban land development around rivers often leads to habitat loss, alterations to water flows, barriers to fish movement and increased risk of pollution and flooding. Intensive agriculture can generate a similar range of threats, often with a heightened risk of fertiliser pollution, increased demands for water abstraction, and clearing of riparian ecosystems.
The characteristics of different fish species impacted how they responded to stressors. As might be expected, species which are particularly sensitive to changes in water quality and habitat loss were strongly affected by urbanisation and agricultural stressors.
“Our study showed that fish species intolerant to habitat degradation in general, including water quality impairments and hydro-morphological changes such as channel alteration, barriers and spawning habitat loss are the most responsive and sensitive traits over a wide range of ecoregions and across continents,” says lead author Maria Magdalena Üblacker from IGB Berlin in Germany.
Species which rely on gravel and rocky areas of river bottom to spawn – so-called ‘lithophilic’ species – were similarly sensitive to stressors in both European and USA rivers. This is likely due to the loss of suitable spawning grounds due to human development.
In the USA, two more characteristics in fish species made them particularly susceptible to stressors. Migratory fish and species which live in fast-flowing water – so-called ‘rheophilic’ species – were also strongly affected by human activity. These species are likely to be vulnerable to river flow barriers and habitat alterations resulting from human development.
The research team used the huge dataset on European and USA rivers to identify ‘threshold’ values at which human stressors had a significant effect on fish populations. “The identified thresholds can provide guidance for prevention, conservation, and restoration of riverine fish habitats,” says Maria Magdalena Üblacker. “Our study also provides evidence about the urge to analyze interconnections between aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems and their implications for future nature conservation planning,” continues Rafaela Schinegger.
“Our work shows the value of international collaborations among institutions, as well as the supportive and productive relationships among our author team,” says lead author Dana Infante, a Professor in the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife at Michigan State University. “Our results for Europe and the USA clearly indicate that a landscape scale approach and the reduction of stressors in urbanised areas have to be a focus for management.”
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