Helping bring Europe's freshwaters back to life.
Supported by @merlin-project.bsky.social
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Read: https://freshwaterblog.net/
The Freshwater Blog
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🌊 Learning from ecologists, farmers, policymakers, communities, activists and ecosystems across Europe
🗺️ @robsaintjohn.bsky.social on what four years of making the @merlin-project.bsky.social podcast taught him about why the stories we tell about water matter
freshwaterblog.net/2026/04/21/t...
🌊 Learning from ecologists, farmers, policymakers, communities, activists and ecosystems across Europe
🗺️ @robsaintjohn.bsky.social on what four years of making the @merlin-project.bsky.social podcast taught him about why the stories we tell about water matter
freshwaterblog.net/2026/04/21/t...
📻 Tune into the new episode of the @futurelakes.bsky.social podcast!
freshwaterblog.net/2026/06/15/c...
🐟 The EU Nature Restoration Regulation is law. But why is large-scale ecological restoration still so hard to achieve?
🌊 The new @merlin-project.bsky.social podcast explores governance, finance, farming policy and the ecological literacy needed for real change
freshwaterblog.net/2026/04/14/m...
🗺️ Four years, 18 sites, hundreds of collaborators across Europe working for freshwater life.
🌊 What has one of the EU's most ambitious nature restoration initiatives achieved – and what comes next?
📻 Tune in to the final @merlin-project.bsky.social podcast now!
freshwaterblog.net/2026/04/23/m...
🌊 What does transformational freshwater restoration actually look like on the ground – and in policy?
🗺️ We look back at what the @merlin-project.bsky.social has acheived, and ask what comes next.
freshwaterblog.net/2026/04/28/f...
🌊 What does transformational freshwater restoration actually look like on the ground – and in policy?
🗺️ We look back at what the @merlin-project.bsky.social has acheived, and ask what comes next.
freshwaterblog.net/2026/04/28/f...
🗳️ A tiny alpine insect is in a global knockout contest – and it needs your vote.
🐛 The Asterix caddisfly (Ecclisopteryx asterix) is competing for conservation funding. Small, overlooked, but vital for healthy rivers.
Read more 👇
freshwaterblog.net/2026/03/17/a...
The Freshwater Blog
The Freshwater Blog
Improving water quality to bend the curve of freshwater biodiversity loss.
Our new review offers 14 steps in 4 themes:
Improved monitoring and understanding
Regulation & enforcement
Pollutant remediation at source and in catchments
Addressing systemic drivers
cdnsciencepub.com/doi/full/10....
Wildflowers on the banks of the Emscher River in Germany. Image: MERLIN On the banks of the Emscher River in Germany, wildflower meadows now bloom where raw sewage once flowed. Along the floodplain…
freshwaterblog.net
Wildflowers on the banks of the Emscher River in Germany. Image: MERLIN On the banks of the Emscher River in Germany, wildflower meadows now bloom where raw sewage once flowed. Along the floodplain…
💧 Who will pay for Europe’s freshwater restoration?
At the final events, the @merlin-project.bsky.social discussed how to finance large-scale restoration – from CAP funding and private finance to value chains for restoration.
Key takeaway: Europe must increase investment in freshwater restoration.
The Freshwater Blog
The Freshwater Blog
The Freshwater Blog
The Freshwater Blog
Steve Ormerod
Ecologic Institute
In March 2026, MERLIN scientific coordinator Daniel Hering stood before a Brussels room full of European policymakers and set out what four years of freshwater restoration had found. The evidence i…
Image: Emir Anik | Pexels Creative Commons By Freshwater Blog editor Rob St John. /// Sit beside a river and it is hard not to be moved. Water flows, light flickers, birdsong echoes. The problem is…
The Nature Restoration Regulation is now European law. National Restoration Plans are being written. The targets are set. So why does transformative, large-scale ecological restoration remain so st…
freshwaterblog.net
Image: Emir Anik | Pexels Creative Commons By Freshwater Blog editor Rob St John. /// Sit beside a river and it is hard not to be moved. Water flows, light flickers, birdsong echoes. The problem is…
Voting for the Asterix caddisfly opened this week. Image: Indianapolis Zoo A small, easily overlooked insect from the Austrian Alps has found itself in an unlikely global contest this week. The Ast…
Kartuzy Lakes, Poland. Image: altotemi | Flickr CC BY-SA 2.0 Nearly half of Europe’s lakes are failing to meet basic ecological standards – and with tens of thousands of degraded waters acros…
