The Core Team
The Dam Removal Europe coalition is coordinated by the World Fish Migration Foundation which delivers the core team. This group of passionate people have the mission to make dam removal a viable tool for local river practitioners.
The Dam Removal Europe coalition is coordinated by the World Fish Migration Foundation which delivers the core team. This group of passionate people have the mission to make dam removal a viable tool for local river practitioners.
Why is dam removal important to you?
The impact of dams on ecosystems cannot be neglected, and the time to start the removal is now. Dams and other barriers are not permanent solutions to solve the problem related to water availability for different uses and to tackle water scarcity. Putting water in boxes (reservoirs) has a reverse effect, as it gives the idea of water availability, increasing the uses and reducing the real availability.
How do you hope to make a difference?
I have learned during my life that the big impacts are with the combination of many small ones. To help reconnect our rivers, I want to help people understand that every impact on nature will have an impact on us. On the other hand, every small effort they can do to revert the current situation will create a big wave of change.
Why is dam removal important to you?
Rivers are literally the veins of our ecosystems, of our home. Dams act as a block in your circulatory system. The best way to recover a healthy river (and avoid dam failures) is to remove these “blocks” when possible.
How do you hope to make a difference?
Through the compilation of the existing knowledge around the world and sharing it, I hope to facilitate the best information to policy makers, river managers, journalist and citizens, to help them improve their legislation and decision making on their rivers.
pao@fishmigration.org
I got my inspiration to start Dam Removal Europe when I visited the USA from 2011 and visited the Elwha river dam removal project in the USA. It was so overwhelming that I thought: ‘we need something similar in Europe too'
Why is dam removal important to you?
It’s a viable measure to really make a difference for rivers and fish. The river becomes free-flowing and alive again! And I love free-flowing rivers!
How do you hope to make a difference?
By inspiring others, connecting, bring people together and that we all stand up and get activated to show that it’s possible to remove old and obsolete barriers and to start seeing dam removal as a viable option.
herman@fishmigration.org
Why is dam removal important to you?
Dam removal an exciting approach to river restoration. Removing the barrier and giving nature space and time to put things in order. Natural order. Much too often we just want to "manage" nature, we should first and for most - observe and learn.
How do you hope to make a difference?
Bringing people together, make network of practitioners, experts, authorities and NGOs stronger, more connected and lauder. For rivers, fish and communities that depend on them.
Why is dam removal important to you?
Have you ever come across this analogy: “Rivers are the veins of our planet and dams are blocking its circulatory system”? Well, I did a few years back, and it’s so accurate! Thus, I decided to do my part to keep our planet healthy.
How do you hope to make a difference?
Creating the first, as accurate as possible, database on dam removals in Europe will be the initial step and analyzing the data will be the second. The dissemination of the results will hopefully assist policy makers to improve the current legislations and the way they consider river management. At the same time, sharing this information with the public and showcasing unique dam removals will hopefully cause the barrier removal movement throughout Europe to boom!
Why is dam removal important to you?
Rivers are the veins of our planet and should run freely. If - one of - the solutions is “as simple” as demolishing some obsolete dams, what are we waiting for? Let’s gear up and free that river!
How do you hope to make a difference?
By communicating the amazing stories of river heroes around the world and inspiring some more!
Why is dam removal important to you?
As a kayaker, rivers are our favourite playground! Not only dams are extremely dangerous for kayakers but they also destroy rapids and entire ecosystems.
How do you hope to make a difference?
By sharing successful stories of dam removals, I hope that people will understand to what extent our rivers are endangered and that removing dams is part of the process of healing waterways.
Why is dam removal important to you?
Dam removal is a nature-based solution that has a positive impact on multiple factors, including socially because obsolete dams can become unsafe, creating a dangerous environment for humans living nearby, economically because dam removal creates a new fishing economy, climate change because dams emit the dangerous GHG methane, and last but not least, fish can swim freely again, positively impacting biodiversity. This results in free-flowing rivers that benefit all!
How do you hope to make a difference?
I aim to have an effect on dam removal by changing how we communicate our mission. We remove dams because it benefits everyone, with social, economic, climate change, and biodiversity as our core pillars. This new approach to communication can attract a broader audience and help us grow into an international movement.
Why is dam removal important to you?
I am committed to the mission of Dam Removal Europe. I get to be a part of this journey by creating visuals and other digital content that share this story with the world.
How do you hope to make a difference?
In my role, I aim to make a difference by effectively conveying the message of Dam Removal Europe to a wider audience. Through creative design, I hope to educate, inspire, and grab the attention of people about the importance of dam removal. By making the information appealing through our website and visual materials, I aim to increase support and awareness for the cause, contributing to the foundations success in restoring our rivers!
Why is dam removal important to you?
Dam removal is vitally important because it is about freeing our rivers, allowing nature to reclaim its course, and giving our communities the chance to thrive in a more sustainable and brighter future.
How do you hope to make a difference?
I firmly believe that driving environmental change hinges on river restoration, removing obstructive dams and ensuring unimpeded fish migration. This strategy is fundamental to promoting healthy aquatic ecosystems. My active participation in various projects underscores our shared dedication to Swimways improvement and river revitalization. With a global and united effort, this change can indeed become a reality.
Why is dam removal important to you?
Over the past years I have come across many parts humans have influenced the natural behavior in our world. The fact that there are still so many (useless) dams located in our rivers makes me concerned, but also inspires me that our current generation has power to change that pattern.
How do you hope to make a difference?
The coming months I will work on a dam removal project in Latvia. There is already a movement going there, and I will do everything to keep that process running. My most important project will be the establishment of a feasibility study for two dams, which would bring back many of free-flowing kilometers and connect the waters with the sea. I hope to achieve this and see it as a starting point for my further actions.
Dam Removal Europe is a coalition of seven organisations: WWF, The Rivers Trust, The Nature Conservancy, the European Rivers Network, Rewilding Europe, Wetlands International, and the World Fish Migration Foundation.
I mainly use my experience and expertise as a river expert and communicator to create an efficient interface between politics, science and civil society.
As a result of a 10-year campaign, "Living Loire" for the preservation of the wild River Loire, I was able to play a key role in the realization of the first Europe-wide removals of large dams.
To promote international cooperation among NGOs, I founded the European Rivers Network (ERN), which today is linked to many stakeholders in the 50 most important river basins on the European continent.
Passion for fishing that was given to me at home as a small kid, later drove me into studying aquatic science as well, all the way to PhD. I did my doctoral thesis, of course, on fish behavior 😊
For more than a decade I have been leading the marine and freshwater conservation at the WWF Finland. I love my work in general, and particularly the fact that the work of my team is so concrete, really making a difference on the field removing migration obstacles from our running waters, as well as successfully advocating changes in the legislation that improve the status of endangered migratory fish species. For dam removal, our biggest innovation was Patagonia’s Damnation movie, and later we helped in producing a film of the destructive history of hydro power development in Finland as well.
The work on dam removals in Europe is still in the beginning although there are already great results to be seen. The challenge is immense, but so are also the opportunities! We can widely bring back the aquatic environment that was once lost all across Europe because of unsustainable human development. Today the science is telling us that in order for human kind to save itself, half the planet should be set aside for wildlife.
Join us in bringing back nature and wildlife to Europe!
Prior to joining The Nature Conservancy in 2018, Sophie worked for 20 years on issues of financing, institutional and regulatory reforms and private sector participation in the water sector. She started her career as a consultant working for NERA (an economic consultancy) and ERM (an environmental consultancy) before setting up and running Trémolet Consulting, a consultancy specialised in economic and financial aspects of the water sector. As a consultant, she advised a broad range of clients, including major development banks, bilateral donors, NGOs, leading universities, and private foundations.
She then worked for the World Bank as a Senior Economist in the Water Global Practice, where she led the preparation and supervised projects in West Africa, contributed to establishing a new multi-donor Trust Fund and developed the Bank’s approaches and tools in blended finance for water. Sophie holds a double Master’s in Economics and International Development from Sciences-Po (Paris) and Columbia University (New York).
Cheers
Sophie
I have spent the past two decades at the intersection of conservation science, policy and communications in the US, EU and globally. Rivers run through my experiences – including the Hudson, Niger and Rhine. Before working at the global and European levels for Wetlands International, I spent more than a decade in Washington, DC as the Legislative Director for environmental champion and member of the US House of Representatives Maurice Hinchey and the Research Director at the League of Conservation Voters. I also have significant field experiences researching wetland-dependent species, from the Everglades in the US to the Bolivian Amazon, and for more than 15 years as a volunteer for the Delaware Bay Shorebird Monitoring Program in the US.
Besides the core team, Dam Removal Europe counts on the help of amazing volunteers spread around the world.
Why is dam removal important to you?
As to why we must bust dams; except for the obvious strengthened resilience of our ecosystems etcetera, etcetera... I actually think of loneliness. The other beings besides us have been leaving – but they have ceased returning. We have blocked the entrances up here. I honestly feel a void growing. I simply want more! Everywhere, more of all beings. And yes, I also want working ecosystems that can withstand more, yes.
How do you hope to make a difference?
I will admit that my heart is poetic. But I am, like a lot of people, not working this field from an emotional standpoint. Rather, applying realism and science. And the complexity of nature is still bottomless. Therefore, it's necessary to say the least; to keep working! We need to make society symbiotic with nature. My way of aiding this ambition lie where science meets engineering. Ingenuity from a thorough and steady growing fundament.
Dam busters contribute to Dam Removal Europe’s mission by finding dams that can be removed, conducting studies and promoting the dam removal movement.
After my study environmantal chemistry I worked for some years in ecotoxicologie, I became aware how fragile ecosystems can be, what an impact small amounts of toxcicants can have. Now I am a labtechnician specialized in medicine and pesticide analyses in surface water at water researche laboratory Aqualysis in Zwolle. The quality of surfacewater is monitored off 5 regional water authoritys in the Netherlands, important for the aquatic ecology, the research contributes to the Europeen water-framework directive.
I was very lucky to join the WFMF at some projects abroad. In Sweden I was fascinated by salmon leaping out of the water of the Ätran River. The fish can swim up due to the construction of fish passages, beautiful. I think I can imagine how desperate fish can be if they want to spawn upstream but are not able to reach this point, all of them craving for a dam, smelling their partners, driven by the urge of sex. I was inspired by incredibly enthusiastic people who wanted to make the world a better place for the environment of fish with fish passages and free flowing rivers.
It is unbelievable what the WFMF has achieved so far, for example the organization of the World Fish Migration Day around the world. In a few years this has grown into a gigantic event with hundreds of locations. I am therefore grateful that I can participate as a volunteer at the foundation, in order to make people more aware of the importance of fish migration.
Growing up in the leading global region on high-tech facilities I considered nature as something that should never be taken for granted. At the same time I spent most of my younger days in or near water bodies, and I still do. My enthusiasm and passion for aquatic ecosystems and their inhabitants, especially fish, is something I want to share with the larger community.
Why is dam removal important to you?
Rivers are the blood supply for our ‘lungs of the earth’, forests. Hence, rivers form the basis for terrestrial life while at the same time being the infrastructure for aquatic migration routes for fish species to fulfil their life cycle. Roadblocks on these migration routes prevent these cycli to be fulfilled with far-reaching ecological consequences.
How do you hope to make a difference?
Aside from the story of the life-sustaining capabilities of rivers I want to strengthen the argument for dam removals with data visualizations. Make sure the larger audience is aware of the spatial scale of rivers that are affected by (obsolete) dams. In combination with ecological analysis this may enable us to pick out priority dam removal candidates that will allow for the recovery of dynamic river ecosystems.
My passion for water is rooted to my childhood, to the Tagliamento river in northern Italy where I used to go to my grandparents for the summer holidays. Back in the days, I thought it was just a river, now I know it’s a very special one, the king of the Alps, one of the last of its kind! I remember the joy of swimming in pure clear water, playing with the stones and run around that huge riverbed. I believe that the purity of that place helped me to value nature and shaped who I am and what I do!
Why is dam removal important to you?
A river by definition flows. At the moment this fundamental characteristic is prevented by a barrier every kilometre of river in Europe. I think the removal of these structures is the only possible way to really give a chance to our river systems to thrive again.
How do you hope to make a difference?
I was really keen about becoming a research scientist, but now I realise that the problem we have is not getting more knowledge, but find ways to bridge the available one to the people out there. I hope to amplify the link between river management and the public, between dam removal and policy makers. I believe communication is the tool that has the power to unite these worlds to really make a difference!
One day on a conference my PI pointed me to the foundation’s founder Herman and suggested I should talk to him. I knew the foundation but I didn’t know him, so I went over, introduced myself and told him I’d like to work for him. Which is basically how I ended up here. I find that pretty cool.
Why is dam removal important to you?
I know how important free-flowing rivers are for a healthy ecosystem, but exclusively working as a scientist didn’t do it for me in the long run – I needed to get more active in communicating our knowledge to the people and showcase the amazing work people are doing for our rivers all over Europe.
How do you hope to make a difference?
Bring in fish-ecological expertise and creativity and a hopefully useful go-to attitude.