A record number of river migration barriers were dismantled in Europe last year. Finland saw the most removals, said the environmental group WWF, based on the Dam Removal Europe 2024 report published on Thursday.
Besides the WWF, the Dam Removal Europe consortium includes NGOs such as the Nature Conservancy, the European Rivers Network, Rewilding Europe and Wetlands International.
More than 500 riverine obstacles were removed or bypassed. Of these, 138 were located in Finland. France came in second, with 128 obstacles removed. Altogether European rivers are fragmented by more than 1.2 million barriers, including dams, weirs and culverts, the consortium said.
"With each barrier that is removed, tens or even hundreds of kilometres of habitat can be freed up for endangered migratory fish and other riverine species. This is a record we can be truly proud of," Sampsa Vilhunen, director of WWF Finland's Marine and Inland Waters Programme, said in a statement.
The record number of removals of migration barriers is in line with the EU Restoration Regulation's goal of restoring at least 25,000 kilometres of free-flowing rivers, the WWF said.
Finland still has about 250 hydroelectric plants. In recent years, they have provided between 15 and 25 percent of the country's electricity, according to state-owned sustainable development consultancy Motiva.
