All over Europe, rivers are being freed. Now the time has come for Greece, as well! In an innovative initiative for Greece, MedINA is organizing the country’s first “Towards Free Flowing Rivers in Greece: National Workshop”, where leading experts from Greece and abroad will meet in Athens on 2nd and 3rd of April.
With zero river barrier removals to date, Greece lags behind the ever-growing European movement to restore the natural flow of rivers. However, the rules have changed: Under the Nature Restoration Regulation and by 2030, EU member states – including Greece – are required to free 25,000 km of rivers, setting out the restoration measures for free-flowing rivers in the National Restoration Plans to be submitted by September 2026. The National Workshop marks a critical and decisive step in starting the discussion and taking action.
MedINA, which is leading the initiative in the country, is focusing on the removal of barriers – a widespread practice that is still surrounded by misconceptions in Greece. With the participation of an interdisciplinary team, the Workshop will delve into what barrier removal actually entails, what barriers can and need to be removed and how this process benefits both nature and biodiversity, as well as humans. Participants in the workshop will include Laura Wildman (Save the Sound, USA), Benoît Terrier (Rhône-Corsica Water Agency), Prof. Steven Weiss (University of Graz, Austria), Irene Duque (Wetlands International Europe, Belgium), Stamatis Zogaris and Stergios Lagogiannis (HMRC), Ioli Christopoulou (The Green Tank) and lawyer George Politis.
“This is a unique opportunity to learn from experts in the field”, says Eirini Lyratzaki, Project Manager of “Scaling up dam removal: Implementation plan for Southeastern Europe” at MedINA, and adds: “The aim is to restore parts of Greek rivers that have been altered for decades by -now- obsolete barriers and give them back their natural flow – free rivers mean healthier ecosystems and increased resilience to climate change.”
The Workshop will take place on Wednesday 2 April, 09:30-16:30, at the Airotel Parthenon Hotel in Plaka, while on Thursday 3 April a field visit will follow, at the Rafina stream. See here the detailed programme. It is open to all interested parties with free participation – please register by 28 March here.
The National Workshop on the Restoration of Free Flowing Rivers is funded by the European Open Rivers Programme, Wetlands International Europe, WWF NL, the LIFE programme as well as MedINA’s own resources.