PROJECT DESCRIPTION
BACKGROUND
Rivers and coastal areas in southern Sweden have been damaged by human activities both in the past and in the present day.
- Forestry activities are responsible for the modification of river beds and currents, affecting habitats, species and water quality. Artificial channels have been created to allow logs to float downstream and drainage ditches have been dug across forests and wetlands to boost timber production.
- For many years, intensive farming has lowered water levels in lakes and drained wetlands through ditching, straightening of streams and the removal of natural substrates from stream beds, while fertilisers cause eutrophication in rivers, streams and marine environments.
- Hydro-electric power plants and dams have significantly affected connectivity between catchment areas and water regulation has changed the overall water quality.
- Infrastructure developments put additional pressure on coastal habitats by disrupting natural processes and blocking migration routes for salmon and other anadromous species.
- In coastal areas, the challenges are exacerbated by overfishing and boating. Commercial fishing methods such as trawling damage vegetation, sediments and reefs which are essential for many fish, bird and insect species to feed, breed and thrive.
The combined impact of so many damaging human activities is a degraded conservation status for many southern Swedish habitats and species listed in the EU Habitats Directive.
OBJECTIVES
The ImproveAquaticLIFE project’s overall aim is to improve the conservation status of species and habitats listed in the Habitats Directive and to reach a ‘good’ ecological status as defined by the Water Framework Directive and Marine Framework Directive. The project will cover 20 catchments, 4 coastal areas, 67 Natura 2000 sites and 9 County Administrative Boards across 15.5% of the entire country.
It will do this by carrying out large-scale restoration work across river basins and coastal areas within and outside Natura 2000 sites in southern Sweden. The project’s specific objectives are to:
- restore river basin habitats, improving river flows and enhancing water quality to ‘good’ ecological status
- restore coastal habitats and installing mooring buoys to achieve ‘good’ environmental status
- reconnect habitats and species by removing barriers
- improve water quality and resilience by restoring catchment areas
RESULTS
The project’s expected results are:
- restoration of 135 hectares (ha) of habitats and species to a more natural condition
- improvement of freshwater pearl mussel habitats in 7 river catchment areas
- improvement of thick shelled river mussel habitats in 5 river catchment areas
- improvement of Atlantic salmon habitats in 10 river catchment areas
- improvement of sea lamprey habitats in 4 river catchment areas
- improvement of European river lamprey habitats in 6 river catchment areas
- increase in density of Atlantic salmon and Brown trout x 3.5 in restored sites
- ‘good’ longitudinal connectivity status achieved in 10 waterbodies during the project, and a further 5 within 5 years of project’s end
- restoration of water levels in 3 lakes covering 54 ha
- creation of 0.35 ha of artificial reefs
- creation of 0.29 ha artificial stone reefs
- restoration and replanting of 4 ha of eelgrass beds
- restoration of 11 ha of enclosed estuaries
- 26-30 anchoring buoys installed
- removal of 96 man-made migration barriers
- over 552 km of tributary rivers and streams re-opened for migration
- creation of blue-green infrastructure covering more than 1.3% of the EU target to restore 25 000 km of free-flowing rivers by 2030
- 38 ditches blocked, 39 ha of wetlands restored and 555 ha of mires and bogs rewetted in 8 catchment areas
- reduction of annual leakage of 12.5 tonnes of nitrogen and 1.5 tonnes of phosphorous
- 56 sediment traps installed
- restoration of 16 river floodplain sites
- capture of 3 631 tonnes/CO2 equivalent/year in restored wetlands
