Europe | Barrier removals soar
With over a million barriers fragmenting European rivers, the latest figures show that 542 were removed last year in efforts to restore more free-flowing rivers across the region
FOR THE PAST FIVE YEARS Dam Removal Europe (DRE), a coalition of the World Wildlife Fund, The Rivers Trust, The Nature Conservancy, European Rivers Network, Rewilding Europe, and Wetlands International Europe, has published an annual progress report on dam removals throughout Europe. Its main aim is to evaluate the advancement of EU policy implementation and to analyse the progress and impact of barrier removal as a river restoration measure Europe-wide.
Dam Removal Europe says such a comprehensive analysis of barrier removal ‘is imperative to ensure false facts and misleading information regarding this practice can be debunked based on actual facts and scientific evidence’, as was recently done with the claims that dam removals were to blame for the flooding in Valencia, Spain in October 2024. Over 1.2 million barriers, including dams, weirs and
Implemented
Occasionally implemented
Starting up the process
Not implemented yet
culverts, fragment European rivers. Tens of thousands of them are obsolete but can block the natural flow of water, sediments, nutrients and species – contributing to a reported 75% decline in freshwater migratory fish populations in Europe since 1970. Data presented in this report is provided by ministries, municipalities, water agencies, river trusts, NGOs, scientists, researchers, and river restoration practitioners. DRE says accurately estimating the total number of barrier removals per year is a highly complex endeavour because the verification process of such projects, and whether they satisfy the DRE criteria of a barrier removal, is time consuming. A centralised process to gather such information nationwide is in place in countries like Spain, France and Denmark, but is lacking in most other European countries. In that respect, DRE believes the final number of removed barriers reported should be considered an underestimation.
Record year
In 2024, 542 barriers were removed in 23 countries – an 11% increase on previous records. This meant over 2900km of rivers were reconnected across the continent and four countries, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Czech Republic and Turkey, removed their first barriers. Finland also made its debut at the top of
Above, top: Number of removed barriers per country in 2024
Above: Implementation of barrier removal as a river restoration tool in Europe
Right: Trapped sediment upstream a dam at Valsan River @Dick Harrewijn
22 | October 2025 |
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Finland 138 France 128 Spain 96 Sweden 45 UK 28 Belgium 17
Switzerland 14 Denmark 13 Ireland 11
Bosinia and Herzegovina 9*
Germany 8 Croatia 7* Italy 5 Slovakia 5 Estonia 4 Ukraine 3 Netherlands 2 Latvia 2 Poland 2 Turkey 2* Czech Republic 1* Lithuania 1 Portugal 1
England 18 Scotland 7 Wales 3
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