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MERLIN Newsletter April 2024

All-partner meeting in Vienna

At the end of February, river restorationists from across Europe met in Vienna to discuss the progress of the European Green Deal MERLIN project. Over the course of four days, attendees – which included scientists, water managers, finance experts and investors – collaborated in discussions around the seventeen sites across Europe where MERLIN is working to kick-start river restoration with ambitious new approaches.

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MERLIN Innovation Awards 2024

The MERLIN Innovation Awards (MIA) recognise new and widely applicable solutions for restoring the functions of freshwater ecosystems or enabling their financial benefit.
As last year, entries from organisations across the world were assessed by an expert panel, and the best innovative solutions have been selected in two categories: the MIA Product of the year and the MIA Service of the year. The winners in 2024 are Planet Srl "Product of the year" and SEADS Sea Defence Solutions "Service of the year".

The future of the Nature Restoration Law is uncertain

Despite having been agreed by the EU ambassadors in December and approved by the European Parliament in February, the long-awaited Nature Restoration Law hangs in the balance once again. Hungary's prime minister, Viktor Orban changed his mind at the last minute, so Hungary, along with Sweden, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Finland, Austria and Belgium, doesn't support the law. At the end of March, the EU Council shelved the vote after it became apparent that the legistlation wouldn't pass.

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Sectoral round tables

The MERLIN roundtables aim to build a Community of Practice linking the economic sector representatives with MERLIN scientific and implementation partners, MERLIN scientists meet the sector representatives three times during the four years of the project. The first roundtables' goal was to understand the motivation and interest of sectors and the impact of nature restoration on the sectors, while the second ones aimed to to share examples of river restorations and their impacts on the sectors; to focus on the MERLIN cases and to discuss pro and contra arguments; to extend the number of involved stakeholders. Introduce cross-sectoral discussions, discuss policy levers and sectoral cooperation opportunities.

First case study videos

Videos for the first two case studyies have been published on the MERLIN website. The first video's title is 'Rewetting Kvornig area: Wetland restoration in Northern Jutland', the Kvorning case study's location is found in Denmark and is part of the Peatlands and wetlands case study cluster. The second video is titled 'Free-flowing Deba river: Barrier removal in the Basque Country', related to Deba river restoration case study. It's location is found in Spain and is part of the small streams and basins case study cluster.

case study 01 case study 02

New podcast episodes

This podcast follows the MERLIN project in its journey of investing millions of Euros to help mainstream freshwater restoration across the continent over the coming years. It offers a behind the scenes look at some of the continent’s most ambitious freshwater restoration projects carried out through cutting-edge aquatic science and conservation.
Since our last newsletter we have 4 new episodes (EP.4, EP.5, EP.6 and EP.7 ), stay tuned for the next ones!
Listen to our podcasts on Apple podcasts, RSS.com or Spotify