How to Improve Fish Protection and Downstream Migration in Rivers?

On 28 October 2014, Ulf Stein (Fellow at Ecologic Institute) presented his key insights on fish migration and protection as a speaker at the 6th Edition of the European River Restoration Conference held in Vienna from 27 until 29 October 2014. Entitled "Connecting River Restoration Thinking to Innovative River Management," the conference was organized jointly by the European Centre for River Restoration (ECRR) and the SEE River project. The presentation slides are available for download. 

At the conference, Ulf Stein contributed his insights from his experiences with the German fish forum. Through a series of workshops, participants of the German forum elaborated results papers on various topics related to fish protection and migration, to encourage discussion and information exchange across sectors on the topic. At its conclusion, the forum will release a synthesis report that summarized their major findings, including disparity in knowledge and technology between (i) assessing upstream fish migration facilities and (ii) fish protection measures and downstream fish migration facilities. Ulf Stein emphasized the need for more attention to both research and river basin management as a result of this important finding. To do this, performance evaluation of existing management systems as well as continued pilot facilities and laboratory experiments are essential moving forward.

This year's conference focused on the key challenges for the future of Integrated River Basin Management, with special emphasis on opportunities for Green Infrastructure (GI), Natural Water Retention (NWRM), and Contemporary River Corridor Management (CRCM). Attendees shared examples of effective river restoration and transboundary integrated river basin management with the goal of increased uptake of ecological river restoration and river basin management in both policy and practice.