In this workshop, the goals for fish conservation in Germany, evaluations of downstream fish migration at hydropower facilities, as well as evaluations of fish passes for upstream and  downstream migration were discussed. Of particular interest were the questions which water management, nature conservation, or fisheries goals are established for fish protection, which measures show promise to help meet these goals, and which methods for evaluating fish passes and their performance have proven reliable.

The workshop especially built off of the 2nd workshop in the series. Workshop participants were given the opportunity to share and discuss information, practical examples, and experiences.

The event was the fourth workshop in a series on the topic of fish protection and downstream migration financed by the Federal Environment Agency (UBA) and organized by Ecologic Institute. The workshop took place at the Bavarian Environmental Agency in Augsburg from 21 to 22 January 2014.

The workshop’s goals were to establish an open dialogue on the established norms and instruments, to identify areas of conflict, to develop a basis for mutual agreement, and to identify open questions surrounding fish protection and downstream migration. Four working groups discussed the following topics in parallel: goals, measures, and functional evaluations of fish passes to improve downstream longitudinal continuity.