{"id":118621,"date":"2026-08-21T15:51:21","date_gmt":"2026-08-21T15:51:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/118621\/"},"modified":"2026-08-21T15:51:21","modified_gmt":"2026-08-21T15:51:21","slug":"the-last-wild-river-of-the-alps-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/118621\/","title":{"rendered":"The Last Wild River of the Alps"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tockner is among more than 800 international scientists who have endorsed an appeal<\/a> warning that the proposed infrastructure would severely damage a one-of-a-kind ecosystem. The project, they argue, would also violate several EU legal frameworks, including the Water Framework Directive<\/a> \u201cto halt deterioration in the status of EU water bodies;\u201d the Birds Directive<\/a> and the Habitats Directive<\/a>, aimed at conserving flora and fauna; and the Nature Restoration Regulation<\/a>. Adopted in July 2024 as a cornerstone of the EU Biodiversity Strategy, the restoration law marks a fundamental shift in European environmental policy, declaring that protection alone is no longer sufficient \u2014 it must be paired with the restoration of degraded environments.<\/p>\n

The law places particular emphasis on removing obsolete or nonfunctional barriers and restoring free-flowing conditions along at least 25,000 kilometers (roughly 15,530 miles) of European rivers by 2030 \u2014 to improve connectivity, support fish populations, sequester carbon, and increase resilience to both droughts and floods. Adding barriers clearly runs counter to this regulation.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we are not able to protect the last free-flowing rivers, efforts to restore degraded ecosystems risk becoming obsolete,\u201d warns Tockner.<\/p>\n

In recent years, Europe has made significant progress on dam removals, some of that pre-dating the new law: 9,680 barriers have been removed across Europe since 2020, according to Dam Removal Europe<\/a>. But only five of these removals took place in Italy, and all were carried out on the Giovenco River<\/a> in Abruzzo. Meanwhile, a few dam-building projects, including the one on the Tagliamento, have picked up steam.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we are not able to protect the last free-flowing rivers, efforts to restore degraded ecosystems risk becoming obsolete.\u201d <\/p>\n

That\u2019s not entirely surprising. Italy has never supported the Nature Restoration Regulation. It opposed the law during its passage \u2014 alongside Hungary, the Netherlands, Poland, Finland, and Sweden. EU member states now have until September 2026 to submit their National Restoration Plans, yet Italy\u2019s policy direction has shown little sign of change.<\/p>\n

\u201cItaly lacks the symbolic and economic push that exists in other countries, where removing dams has, for example, allowed the return of salmon migration,\u201d says Giuliano Trentini, president of the Italian Centre for River Restoration. \u201cBut our country\u2019s delay goes beyond this. It is a cultural issue. The prevailing idea is still that building more means greater safety.\u201d <\/p>\n

THIS IS NOT the first time regional officials have proposed a barrier for the Tagliamento. Another small dam was floated for the river\u2019s pinch point near Pinzano Gorge back in the 1970s, and flood retention areas have been discussed on and off ever since. Proponents justify interventions by pointing to the major flood risk in the lower Friulian Plain, an area classified as highly vulnerable by the Italian Institute for Environmental Protection and Research.<\/a> In every case, barrier plans have been shelved due to local backlash.<\/p>\n

However, some downstream communities are in favor of the current weir plan. The river flows into the Adriatic near some of northern Italy\u2019s most popular tourist hotspots, including Bibione and Lignano Sabbiadoro, beach umbrella-dotted coastal towns that host millions of visitors every year, and which therefore need flood protection, according to local officials. In Latisana, near the river\u2019s delta, the Tagliamento takes on a more constrained appearance. It flows between concrete embankments built to protect the town, which was hit by severe floods in the 1960s.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need substantial infrastructure works upstream for our safety,\u201d says Sandro Vignotto, a town councilor in Latisana. \u201cWe don\u2019t care where or what they are; we just want the process to move forward. We have been waiting for 60 years.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tockner is among more than 800 international scientists who have endorsed an appeal warning that the proposed infrastructure…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":118622,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[16],"tags":[50],"class_list":["post-118621","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-alps","tag-alps"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ch\/117134300584005983","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118621","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=118621"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118621\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/118622"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}