River restoration, monitoring and applied research in Sweden

Swedish Agency for Marine and WaterManagement (SWAM)

Fredrik Nordwall

Mårten Gustafsson

Erik Årnfelt

State of Play:

Restoration in focus» EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 Bringing nature back into our lives

• Contains overall guidelines and targets for river restoration

(Target: 25000 km free flowing water within EU)

» FN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration 2021-30

Aims to massively scale up the restoration of degraded and destroyed ecosystems as

a proven measure to fight the climate crisis and enhance food security, water supply

and biodiversity.

» EU Water Directors meeting in Helsinki 2019

• The EU Commission underlined the importance of River Restoration as a means

to reach the Water Framework Directive (WFD) objectives, and ….

Foto Mattias Ibbe

Länsstyrelsen Östergötland

Restauration or rehabilitation?

» Academic issues. We use

restoration as it is given in

ordinates to SWAM, EU and in

UN-documents.

» Operates on different levels and

scales.

Hydromorphological conditionConnectivity

Why? Status WFD running waters

Overall status

Swedish Freshwater habitats listed in the Habitats

Directive, and their overall assessments in the

different biogeographical regions in 2013 and 2019,

respectively. ALP = alpine, BOR = boreal, and CON

= continental region. Green = favourable, yellow =

inadequate, red = unfavourable, and white =

unknown conservation status. Symbols without a

sign indicate a stable trend, = positive, = negative,

x = unknown trend.

• Habitat 3210 and 3260 – small and large

water courses…

• Inadequate status and negative trends:

-Waterpower – impacts (regulated rivers)

-Many if not most, former log driving routes

-Water extractions

-Road crosses

-Climate change

- etc

Restoration measures within Natura 2000 (i.e.

LIFE) and other protected areas have slowed or

reversed the negative trends for some species

and habitats.

WHY? Assessments of

conservation status (Article 17

reporting 2019)

National Strategy

Regional Actions plans

Projects

Measures

Establishing a conceptual framework for actions

Legal guidance

Knowledge-platform

Strategy/Action plan

FundingLOVA, LONA, FVM 1:11,

Natur1:3, LIFE, EMFF

ProcessGovernance

Numerous of plans in place:• NAP

• Ecosystembased management

• Action programs endangeredspedies

• Green infrastructure

• Protected areas

• RBMP:s

• Plan for liming

• CAP

No more plans required, moreactions, improved coordination.

Register of

measures

(Database)

Effect

Assessment

Monitoring

Reporting

Env.objectiv.

EU WFD

EU HD

Helcom

Government

RBMP:S

Time horisonts

Days----Months-----------1 year--------------3 years---------------6 years-------------12 years-------1 generation

Workplans

Stra

tegi

cal

Pra

ctic

al

Workplans

Workplans

Project (site level)

Project (site level)Project (site

level)

National Strategy

Collective Action plan watershed

Collective Action Plan - Watershed

Ecosystem-

based

fisheries

management

Valuable

nature

Fisheries

management

associations

SAPLiming

Natura 2000

–

conservation

plan

EMP

Nutrient

loads

Outdoor

activities

Formally

Protected

areas

Water-

resources

Hydropower

production

Four critical corner-stones:» Strategy:

• Long-term goals and priorities

• Linking together current legislative areas and strategies

• Cooperation (authorities and performers)

» Guidelines• Legal framework for funding (lacking today, yearly basis)

• Actions through law regulation (PPP) or Nature conservation (state funding)

» Knowledge-platform• Best practice

• Upodated review of current knowledge

• Cooperation

» Funding

9

Funding

Funding and reporting is of crucial importance

tools for implementation.

» Effective funding requires:

• Long-term decisions

• Resilience

• Predictability

» Management by objectives rather than detailed

reporting and indicators.

Funding for restoration freshwater 2015-2020 (SEK)

Funding as a strategicframework

» Current situation: scatter plot of projectsacross the country (Priorities?)

» CAB:s applies for funding of projects on an ad hoc basis (at the end of the year☺)

» Long-term projects lacking - except LIFE or EMFF

» Administrative excesses, IT-support system lacking

» Functional assessment of progress is lacking (focus on economy, object level)

2020-11-2011

R & D and itsorganisation

» Small bodies involved => difficulties in

building knowledge and coordinating

» Many organisations and authorities

involved

» Adaptive management of restoration

actions

» More effective management (institutional

structures)

Cluster?

CAB:s

Consultants

SwAM

NGO (Sportfiskarna)

Stakeholders

Universities(SLU)

Muncipalities

R & D - Applied research in the field of river restoration

» Basic coorperation – SLU Aqua/SSPIC (5 years agreement) : ~5 MSEK/year ( Tot. ~ 120

MSEK/year)

» The Environmental research fund (SEPA/SWAM) –2-3 MSEK/year (Tot ~ 95 MSEK/year)

» Other Universities (Short term contracts) – UMU (~ 1 Msek/year)

» Grants to research bodies – i.e. Energiforsk (~ 2 MSEK/year)

R & D - Applied research in the field of river restoration

» Basic cooperation/”Help desk” –

SLU Aqua/SSPIC (5 years agreement) :

~5 MSEK/year ( Tot. ~ 120 MSEK/year)

R & D - Applied research in the field of river restoration

The Environmental research fund (SEPA/SWAM) –2 MSEK/year (Tot ~ 95 MSEK/year)

R & D - Applied research in the field of river restoration

» Other Universities (Short term contracts when needed) – (~ 1 Msek/year)

R & D - Applied research in the field of river restoration

Grants to research bodies –

i.e. Energiforsk

(~ 2 MSEK/year 2020-2022)

Further and ongoing workin freshwater systems

» Habitat restoration (i.e. migration barriers, timber floating lanes) in running waters ongoing and

forthcoming in several large LIFE projects (ReBORN, Rivers of Life, Ecostreams etc..). More habitat

restoration projects in freshwaters ongoing in Sweden than ever.

» Developing Guidelines for catchment specific programmes of measures.

» Development of assessement methodologies (LIFE IP RW ws).

» Revising conservation plans (N2000/Nature reserves)

Thanks a lot for your attention!