CAN WE PROTECT AND RESTORE OUR RIVERS AND WETLANDS BY 2030?
EU Missions are one of the ways the European Union currently addresses some of the biggest contemporary challenges and formulates actions that are expected to produce purposeful solutions and meaningful outcomes. Missions are part of the Horizon Europe program, the central funding mechanism of the EU for research and innovation. They were developed to provide a focus for achieving clear and measurable goals within a set timeframe and are designed to foster collaboration across disciplines, sectors, regions, and countries. The idea is to bridge the gap between widely conceptualized Sustainable Development Goals and particular projects that produce concrete outcomes. It is also important for particular projects to be transformative in a wider social sense as opposed to being technology-centred and purely growth-oriented.
EU missions are based on the world-renowned economist Mariana Mazzucato’s two reports on European research and innovation and mission-oriented approach (Mazzucato, 2018 and 2019). Mazzucato put an accent on the social impact of research and innovation, the co-creation process, and citizen engagement while recognizing 5 base criteria for defining and choosing particular missions:
- Bold, inspirational with wide societal relevance;
- A clear direction: targeted, measurable and time-bound;
- Ambitious but realistic research & innovation actions;
- Cross-disciplinary, cross-sectoral and cross-actor innovation;
- Multiple, bottom-up solutions.
Today’s five missions were formally defined and introduced in 2021 through the Horizon Europe program (2021–2027) which succeeded H2020 (2014–2020) which was the previous EU funding mechanism for R&I:
- Adaptation to Climate Change – supporting at least 150 European regions and communities to adapt to climate impacts by 2030.
- Cancer – improving the lives of more than 3 million people by 2030 through improving prevention mechanisms, innovating the curing process and finding novel solutions.
- Restore our Ocean, seas and waters by 2030 – restoring the health of Europe’s marine and freshwater ecosystems by protecting and increasing biodiversity, reducing pollution, and fostering sustainable blue economies.
- 100 Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities by 2030 – transforming 100 European cities into climate-neutral, energy-efficient, and smart urban areas by developing solutions in fields such as renewable energy and sustainable mobility.
- A Soil Deal for Europe – founding 100 living labs and lighthouses to achieve the ambitious objective: to have at least 75% healthy or improving soils by 2030, by promoting sustainable agricultural practices (e.g., regenerative agriculture) and restoring degraded areas.
Each of these missions contains certain aims, activities and measures focused on achieving measurable targets by 2030, and each is designed to support various, but often interlinked, strategic priorities of the European Commission (e.g., the European Green Deal).
In this text we will focus on the mission “Restore our Ocean, seas and waters by 2030” (hereafter, the Mission).
World oceans, seas, rivers, and lakes create a system which covers more than 70% of Earth’s surface and provides a home to a vast amount of biological species. At the same time, this system is interlinked with other systems that together influence climate patterns, the quality of drinking water, and the production of oxygen, food, and renewable energy. On the other hand, marine and freshwater ecosystems are rapidly degrading as they are affected by pollution, biodiversity loss and negative consequences of climate change. This process directly threatens millions of citizens in Europe and a lot more worldwide as these systems transcend national borders.
IN SERBIA, A GREAT PORTION OF RIVERS AND LAKES ARE AFFECTED BY VARIOUS FORMS OF POLLUTION FROM AGRICULTURAL RUNOFF, INDUSTRIAL DISCHARGES, URBAN WASTEWATER AND UNTREATED SEWAGE, AND DAMS THAT ARE DISRUPTING THE NATURAL FLOW OF RIVERS, AND THEREFORE ECOSYSTEM CONNECTIVITY AND CONTINUITY.
In addition, climate change is altering the properties of our waters, causing more frequent and severe droughts and floods, thus posing a significant risk to biodiversity and human settlements.
All this implies that solutions require a systemic approach that addresses the entire hydrosphere as the health of marine waters is interconnected to the health of Europe’s rivers and inland waters. A healthy hydrosphere is essential for protecting biodiversity and achieving targets related to climate neutrality which are all mandatory foundations for realizing economic prosperity in the long run.
Recognising the urgent need to protect and restore these crucial ecosystems, the European Union launched the Mission as an initiative that aims to reverse the degradation of our waters through supporting research and innovation, sustainable practices, and collaborative efforts across EU member states and widening countries, including Serbia.
The Mission contains the following primary objectives:
- Protect and restore marine and freshwater ecosystems and biodiversity;
- Prevent and eliminate pollution of our ocean, seas and waters;
- Make the sustainable blue economy carbon-neutral and circular.
The Mission supports these objectives through investing in digital ocean and water knowledge systems (e.g., Copernicus and EMODnet), increasing public engagement, promoting participatory governance, and empowering citizens through mechanisms such as deliberative democracy, social innovation and citizen science.
Two phases of Mission implementation
The first phase (2021-2025) is focused on development and piloting which establishes a series of ‘lighthouses’ across the major European seas and river basins. These lighthouses are deploying, developing and demonstrating transformative innovations in technology, multi-actor engagement, governance and other relevant domains that are important for achieving the Mission objectives. They are building on existing networks, initiatives, and good practices, but also creating new knowledge, co-designed and co-implemented with citizens and other stakeholders. Given the transboundary nature of marine and river ecosystems, these lighthouses must be meaningfully connected which makes international cooperation mandatory.
The particular lighthouses were selected through the Horizon Europe open calls, and today, The Mission is in the process of active implementation through numerous projects.
One of the projects that were selected for funding in this stage is DALIA (Danube Region Water Lighthouse Action) which brings together 22 organizations from 8 different countries to work together on the restoration of fresh and transitional water ecosystems in the Danube River basin, including the Institute for Development and Innovation. DALIA has established 9 demonstration pilot sites in 6 countries in the Danube River basin area that has an approximate population of 79 million inhabitants.
THE BEGEČKA JAMA WETLAND REPRESENTS THE SERBIAN PILOT SITE WHERE SUSTAINABLE ECOSYSTEM MONITORING AND RESTORATION SOLUTIONS ARE BEING TESTED WITH AN AIM TO IMPROVE ITS WATER QUALITY AND HYDROLOGICAL REGIME WHICH IS SIGNIFICANTLY POLLUTED AND AFFECTED BY SEDIMENT INPUT FROM THE SURROUNDING DRAINAGE AREA AND FARMLAND.
If we look at things in the long run, the DALIA consortium has a challenging task to provide sustainable solutions and inputs for strategies and policies related to ecosystem protection, restoration and connectivity and at the same time, improving the safeguarding of local communities and ecosystems from extreme events and various threats caused by pollution.
In 2025 a review will be conducted to assess the progress regarding the mission objectives, before the implementation of the second phase (2026-2030). This phase will take the piloted and demonstrated solutions, develop them further, replicate and scale them up to enable wider implementation. This includes improving the technology readiness levels (TRL), supporting market entry for new solutions and harmonizing new developments with EU funding mechanisms and private investments. DALIA’s lighthouses and their outcomes will present inputs to this second phase and therefore for the forthcoming Horizon Europe projects as well.
THE RELEVANCE AND IMPORTANCE OF THE MISSION EXTENDS WAY BEYOND COASTAL COUNTRIES AND REGIONS.
Despite being a landlocked country, Serbia has an extensive network of rivers, lakes, and wetlands. Therefore, it should contribute, in all possible and adequate ways, to the implementation of the Mission, develop itself in the process (through collaboration, knowledge exchange, and funding opportunities), but also benefit from its results and outcomes.
The sustainability of our society cannot be achieved without protecting, preserving and restoring the health of our freshwater ecosystems through harmonization with strategic and operative frameworks such as the Mission, participation in transdisciplinary and international projects, improving our regulatory frameworks, implementing good practices, involving diverse social actors, engaging citizens, and taking all necessary action when such ecosystems are threatened.
Author: Sinisa Borota, sociologist
Picture: Downloaded from DALIA website