Completed

The LIFE WETMAN project (2011–2015) restored six Slovenian wetlands (Pohorje bogs, Zelenci, Mura–Petišovci oxbows, Gornji kal, Planik and Vrhe). It improved hydrological conditions (e.g., dams on outflows in the Pohorje bogs and a gravel/sediment trap on the Čošelnov graben feeding Zelenci), removed overgrowth, and eliminated invasive fish in Gornji kal and the Mura oxbows. To reduce habitat damage and disturbance, footpaths/boardwalks were created in Zelenci and on the Pohorje bogs. Site-specific management guidelines were prepared and integrated into sectoral and Natura 2000 planning to ensure long-term conservation.
After LIFE, implementation continued: a Zelenci management plan was prepared in 2013 with the municipality; the national Natura 2000 Management Programme (2015–2020) and the integrated project LIFE-IP NATURA.SI (2018–2026) have supported further measures and monitoring. On Pohorje, follow-up regional projects (SUPORT and POHORKA, 2019–2023) consolidated habitat and visitor-management actions. WETMAN’s results were also recognised with a Best LIFE Nature award at EU Green Week.

The project was implemented in 2009 by the Russenski Lom Nature Park Directorate, Club “Friends of Russenski Lom” and WWF, with the support of the Ministry of Culture, and was funded by WWF and the German Federal Ecological Foundation (DBU). Applying the principle “more space for the river – more safety for people”, it aimed to open sections of the dykes, allowing water to re-enter the floodplain, reducing road flooding risk, and restoring river–floodplain connectivity.
Since then, the intervention has been embedded in the park’s long-term management framework. In 2022, an updated 10-year Management Plan for the park was formally adopted, prepared under the Interreg V-A Romania–Bulgaria “GreenManagement” project. This plan integrates the earlier floodplain restoration into a wider strategy for Natura 2000 site conservation, hydromorphological monitoring, sustainable tourism, and cross-border cooperation. WWF has also reported complementary river restoration measures within the park, including barrier removals and the installation of a fish pass to improve longitudinal connectivity and support protected fish species. These actions consolidate the ecological and hydrological benefits initiated in 2009, now supported by structured governance, mapping tools, and systematic monitoring.

LIFE-Nature “Green Borders” (LIFE07 NAT/RO/000681, 2009–2013), coordinated by WWF with Romanian and Bulgarian partners, aimed to secure Pygmy Cormorant (Phalacrocorax pygmaeus) and Ferruginous Duck (Aythya nyroca) by restoring nesting/feeding habitats and promoting best fisheries management. It created a cross-border framework for 11 Natura 2000 sites along the Lower Danube.
Key works included improving the hydrological regime of Kaikusha marsh in Persina Nature Park (BG), completed in 2012, and the ecological reconstruction of the Gerai(ului) backwater at the Olt–Danube confluence (RO) in 2011.
The project’s studies supported the 2013 designation of three Transboundary Ramsar complexes (Iezerul Călărași–Srebarna, Suhaia–Belene Islands Complex, and Bistret–Ibisha), strengthening coordinated wetland management across the border.
Follow-up restoration in the Lower Danube Green Corridor continued under the Living Danube Partnership: water control was modernised at Persina/Kalimok and a further project prepared for Kaikusha; in Romania, >400 ha at Gârla Mare–Vrata were reconnected to the Danube in 2022. Note: in Sept 2021, a major fire burned most reedbeds at Kaikusha, temporarily degrading habitat.

Dimitrovgrad Municipality restored, protected and promoted the sustainable development of the “Zlato pole” protected area by securing additional water to maintain its hydrological regime and constructing a hydraulic intake and supply channel. Water is diverted from the Martinka River, via a small intake and settling basin, then conveyed ~580 m in a buried 600-mm pipe and ~520 m in an open canal with control gates; the scheme was completed in 2013. The 84.79-ha site overlaps the Natura 2000 SPA BG0002103 “Zlato pole”, for which the Ministry adopted site-specific conservation objectives in June 2024, including targets for key birds such as Pygmy Cormorant and Ferruginous Duck and for wetland habitats. Management is overseen by RIEW Haskovo, with an information centre in Raynovo supporting education and visitors. Post-project actions have included nest boxes, aquatic plantings (white waterlily) and safeguarding of Leucojum aestivum. Current pressures reported on site are recurrent fires, illegal hunting/fishing and occasional flooding along the Martinka. Overall, the restoration sustains wetland hydrology, enhances habitat mosaics on the Maritsa floodplain and underpins ongoing Natura 2000 commitments, while requiring continued local engagement and enforcement.

Life for the Burgas Lakes (LIFE08-NAT/BG/000277) was an EU LIFE+ Nature project aiming to secure the long-term conservation of five Annex I bird species and the sustainable management of their wetland habitats around Burgas, implemented in coordination with Burgas Municipality, Chernomorski Solnitsi (Black Sea Saltworks), the Bulgarian Biodiversity Foundation and RSPB (2010–2014). Since then, complementary measures across the complex have consolidated and expanded results: at Poda (Ramsar), works in 2023 reopened the Komlushki canal, rehabilitated a dyke and installed water-level control; at Lake Vaya, the outlet canal to the Black Sea was rehabilitated in 2023 to increase hydraulic capacity, rebalance salinity and improve the water regime; at Atanasovsko Lake, the Salt of Life and Lagoon of Life projects (2012–2018; 2018–2024) restored dikes, cleaned saltwater channels and enhanced lagoon habitats, with Bulgaria’s first successful Greater Flamingo breeding recorded in 2024. Grid-related bird mortality is being addressed by the ongoing LIFE “Safe Grid for Burgas” (2021–2026). According to the project manager, most NWRM remain operational and continue to deliver benefits to birds, with natural transformations and targeted upgrades.

A linking canal with a lock, constructed in 1994, restored the hydrological connection between Srebarna Lake and the Danube, enabling an annual inflow of river water and preventing the lake’s isolation that began in 1949. This intervention improved water levels, reduced eutrophication trends and supported the recovery of biodiversity, notably the Dalmatian pelican colony. The site, inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List, is managed by the Ministry of Environment and Water through the Regional Inspectorate (RIEW) in Ruse, and has been part of Natura 2000 since 2008, with a 673-ha buffer zone.

Recent UNESCO reporting (2024) confirmed the site’s official area at 638 ha after correcting a cartographic error from 2007. Management faces new challenges: predation of pelican eggs by invasive raccoon dogs and, more rarely, golden jackals, sometimes facilitated by late ice formation after mild winters. These factors have prompted measures such as protective fencing around nesting sites. The hydrological system and monitoring remain essential to maintain ecological values, while updated management planning and maintenance of hydraulic structures are priorities for sustaining the lake’s ecological health.

The project aims to secure year-round Danube Commission fairway depths of 2.5 m between Călărași and Brăila, including during low flows. Since 2022 it has been reframed as “BALA II,” a combined navigation–environment scheme led by AFDJ Galați that restores and renaturalises the Bala bifurcation area. The solution raises the Bala bottom sill from 0 m to 6.5 m (MNC), re-activates an old bifurcation branch, and foresees complementary works on the Old Danube reach, in order to stabilise low-water hydraulics while limiting ecological impacts. Key permits and approvals have been obtained: water management approval (June 2022) and an environmental agreement from APM Călărași (Sept 2023). In Sept 2024 the Government approved the project’s techno-economic indicators (HG 1079/2024). Procurement for design and works was relaunched in 2025 (estimated value ~743.8 million RON; 96-month duration). As of August 2025, no award notice is publicly available.

Installed in 2006 by Limnos Ltd., the innovative ecoremediation (ERM) system on a polluted tributary of the Glinščica combines a sedimentation pond (to settle coarse particles and reduce flow velocity), a vegetated sand-filled drainage ditch with reeds, and a short meandered channel. Early monitoring (2008–2009) reported strong reductions in nutrients and suspended matter, with effectiveness sustained by routine maintenance (including sediment removal in 2008). The facility remains in place and in use, is maintained by the City of Ljubljana, and is incorporated into local educational activities; project managers confirm it has not been amended. Since installation, additional nature-based solutions for flood retention and stormwater management have been implemented elsewhere in the Glinščica catchment - most notably the Brdnikova dry retention reservoir and works at Podutik - which have helped mitigate recent heavy-rain events. In the technical literature the site is also referenced within a broader “Multifunctional Water Reservoir (MWR) Ljubljana,” where upgrades commissioned in 2014 enhanced ecological and educational functions without changing the ERM’s treatment role.

This project improves the conservation status of floodplain bird species protected in the Natura 2000 sites SPA Dunajské luhy (Slovakia) and SPA Szigetköz (Hungary). It is funded by the LIFE Programme. Since 2015, the follow-up LIFE Danube Floodplains (LIFE14 NAT/SK/001306) and partners have restored river connectivity and water regimes by reopening 18.5 km of tributaries, restoring >75 ha of wetlands and advancing earlier, better-timed simulated floods; water-regime improvement now covers ~1,805 ha. Recent actions in Slovakia include reopening 3.7 km of the lower Vojčianske side arm (2023–24), partial reconnection at Kráľovská lúka (2024) and re-excavation/reconnection of the Foki side arm in the Old Danube (~2.0 km; 2025). Monitoring reports note positive responses of rheophilic fish, amphibians and floodplain vegetation; hydromorphological works have restored extensive floodplain forest and riparian habitats (e.g., 482 ha of 91E0* and 115 ha of 91F0). In Hungary’s Szigetköz, the water-replenishment system was extended in 2014–15 and connectivity enhanced with fish passes at Dunasziget (1998), Ásványráró (2015) and at the Mosoni-Danube outlet in Vének (operational 2022).

Removing barriers to fish migration, enhancing and restoring habitats, improving water-management infrastructure, and establishing a monitoring system. Funded by LIFE+ and implemented by Purgator Engineering Ltd. under the responsibility of the University of Ljubljana (UL FGG), the 2012–2016 “Ljubljanica connects” project rebuilt two dysfunctional fish passes (Fužine weir and Ambrožev trg), modernised the lifting gates at Ambrožev trg, and raised the Zalog sill by 20 cm to improve levels and oxygenation in upstream oxbows. A low-cost IR “fishcam” system was installed in both passes, providing continuous, online monitoring and confirming passage of 12 fish species, including the target Hucho hucho, Rutilus pigus and Leuciscus souffia. An After-LIFE plan maintains monitoring and knowledge transfer. While urban-section connectivity improved, full longitudinal continuity to the Sava remains constrained: the paper-mill weir at Vevče is the first impassable barrier upstream from the confluence, and the Gruber Canal sluice lacks a fish pass; national planning documents list measures to establish passability at Gruber. Coordinator: University of Ljubljana; partners: Purgator and Geateh.