Mainstreaming Ecological Restoration of freshwater-related ecosystems in a Landscape context: INnovation, upscaling and transformation: MERLIN

What MERLIN does

Demonstrating best-practice in restoration

For 18 flagship restoration projects across Europe, MERLIN analyzes social, economic, and environmental success factors to create a replicable blueprint for implementing nature-based solutions, while investing over €10 million to scale them into leading examples of systemic change.

Case studies

Green economy

MERLIN delineates models for private investment into restoration alongside public funding, tailored to contexts specific for economic sectors and countries.

MERLIN’s initiatives maximize synergies across economic sectors, and transparently mediate trade-offs where necessary.

Sectoral activity

European-scale restoration

MERLIN identifies high-potential priority landscapes for transformative restoration, focusing on ecosystem services, biodiversity, and climate mitigation and adaptation, while illustrating environmental value chains and the costs, benefits, and green business opportunities of nature-based solutions in selected European regions.

Upscaling

Restoration training

The MERLIN Academy multiplies the knowledge to mainstream freshwater restoration, addressing the community of practice, restoration project convenors, communities, investors and policy makers.

Academy & webinars

Restoration mainstreaming

MERLIN closely collaborates with local communities and key economic sectors such as agriculture, water supply, navigation and insurance industry. Main focus is to co-develop win-win solutions spearheading systemic economic, social and environmental change.

Mainstreaming

Restoration marketplace

The MERLIN Marketplace connects restoration actors, offers restoration-related services, and brokers restoration financing.

Marketplace

Europe's environment is in an alarming state, with climate change expected to further aggravate the situation. This poses severe threats to economic prosperity, human wellbeing and social peace – our society needs systemic transformative change.

Ecosystem restoration is key to this change, and freshwaters play an important role: the restoration of streams, rivers, peatlands and wetlands has a long tradition and offers an extensive knowledge base – freshwaters are ideal demonstrators of the necessary change.

The MERLIN project commits to transformative ecosystem restoration, mainstreaming Nature-based Solutions for the urgent systemic change of our society.

After a four-year term, the project has come to an end in March 2026. The website will stay online and will be maintained by the coordinators.