Across Europe, the Endangered Landscapes & Seascapes Programme (ELSP) and the Open Rivers Programme (ORP) often support projects in the same landscapes, from Portugal’s Côa Valley to Romania’s Carpathians, Bulgaria’s Rhodope-to-Black Sea corridor and Italy’s central Apennines. But what does this mean for nature? This article explores how the two programmes are supporting complementary restoration work in these landscapes, that helps to deliver greater impact for nature and people.
The Greater Côa Valley: an unfinished story in Portugal
The Greater Côa Valley sits in the Northwest of Portugal, close to the border between Portugal and Spain. Spanning 318,000 hectares of rugged canyons, oak woodlands, montado and river systems, it forms a crucial wildlife corridor linking Mediterranean and Atlantic ecosystems. Culturally rich and extraordinarily biodiverse, it is one of the wildest areas in Portugal, home to more than 210 vertebrate species, including several keystone species.
At the heart of this landscape, the Côa River flows 140 kilometres from the Serra das Mesas in the Malcata Mountains, running into the Douro and connecting the Malcata Nature Reserve to the Douro International Park. Along its course, a great diversity of habitats unfolds: rich riparian forest and large floodplains in the south, and spectacular gorges in the north, home to cliff-nesting raptors and vultures. In the upper reaches of the river, more than 80 rock art sites and around 1,200 engraved outcrops tell the story of the people who lived here during the Paleolithic, leaving behind the most important collection of open-air figurative art known to exist anywhere in the world.
But this heritage almost disappeared.
In the early 1990s, the construction of a dam in the Upper Côa River threatened to submerge the ancient art, whose magnitude was unknown at the time. But in 1996, after the discovery of a great number of rock art sites and the action of civil society claiming the importance of conserving the site, the most important collection of Palaeolithic open-air art was saved from being flooded. The great artistic and scientific value of the engravings led to recognition by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site in 1998. Just one year later, the upper Côa and Massueime rivers were included in the Natura 2000 Network as a Special Protection Area, due to the importance of the river canyon for cliff-nesting birds, such as the Egyptian vulture (Neophron percnopterus), black stork (Ciconia nigra) and the golden eagle (Aquila chrysaetos).
However, the obsolete concrete walls now known as the Foz Côa Cofferdams still stand where the Côa meets the Massueime, blocking the connection of both rivers to the Douro. Identified as priority structures for removal in the national Catchment Plan for the Douro River, they are an obstacle to ecological recovery and a symbol of an unfinished story. Removing them, as technical, social, and environmental studies have already shown to be feasible, would deliver significant ecological and cultural benefits to the valley.
This is where the European Open Rivers Programme (ORP) and the Endangered Landscapes & Seascapes Programme (ELSP) come in.
In the Côa Valley, both programmes are supporting complementary efforts to restore ecological connectivity and natural processes. Led by Rewilding Portugal in partnership with Agência Portuguesa do Ambiente, Fundação Côa Parque and Rewilding Europe, the ORP-supported project is working on the preparatory steps needed for the physical removal of the cofferdams, while working to advance dam removal across Portugal more broadly.
Alongside this, the ELSP project, led by Rewilding Europe and Rewilding Portugal, is rebuilding ecological connectivity across the valley. Frequent wildfires, driven by abandoned land and accumulated biomass, repeatedly interrupt ecological recovery. Declining prey populations limited predator recovery, while rural communities struggled with economic decline. By restoring natural grazing, strengthening coexistence systems and supporting a nature-based economy rooted in wildlife comeback, natural processes are restored, creating new pathways for sustainable development.
Both projects are fighting for what civil society started over thirty years ago: giving the Côa Valley the chance to heal, on land and in water.
Two programmes, shared landscapes
Funded by Arcadia, a charitable foundation that works to protect nature, preserve cultural heritage and promote open access to knowledge, both ORP and the ELSP support ecological restoration across Europe, but at different scales and through different approaches.
Founded in 2018, the Endangered Landscapes & Seascapes Programme was established with the vision of restoring Europe’s landscapes and seascapes so that they are enriched with biodiversity and support resilient, self-sustaining ecosystems that benefit both nature and people. The Programme provides long-term funding for ambitious restoration initiatives across Europe. To date, it has pledged US$138 million to 29 large-scale restoration projects, securing a further US$59 million in co-funding. Together, these projects are directly restoring more than 204,955 hectares of land and sea, with actions projected to influence 9.7 million hectares.
Established in 2021, the Open Rivers Programme was born with the vision to create free-flowing rivers with healthy, diverse and connected ecosystems across Europe, which are enjoyed, valued, and protected by the communities that depend on them. To achieve it, the Programme offers grants to support projects that lead to the removal of small dams and the restoration of river flow and biodiversity. In less than six years, ORP has granted over €18.4 million across 210 projects in 34 European countries, leveraging €56.5 million in co-funding, and resulting in the removal of 141 small dams and the reconnection of over 1,812 river kilometres.
The Côa Valley is not the only place where ORP and ELSP are working side by side. Across Europe, both programmes are supporting projects in the same landscapes, combining river restoration and rewilding to maximise ecological impact.
The Făgăraș Mountains, Romania
Romania has a rich river system, but many rivers remain heavily impacted by infrastructure that alters their connectivity. It is only recently, driven by EU legislation, that authorities have begun considering solutions to restore natural flow and connectivity – such as the removal of river barriers.
The Open Rivers Programme has several active projects in the Carpathian Mountains region. A project led by Fundatia Centura Verde in partnership with Fauna & Flora, working to remove three barriers in the Vâlsan River, home to last remaining and critically endangered Asprete fish. With only 181 individuals detected across its 10 km range (as of October 2025), the stakes are high. The outdated barriers fragment habitat, disrupt flow and sediment transport, and confine individuals to small downstream refuges, reducing reproductive success and genetic diversity. Further into the mountains, the NGO APS Aqua Crisius is preparing the removal of an obsolete timber dam in Europe’s largest forest wilderness national park, which will allow 27 km of the upper Doamnei river to flow freely once again.
While ORP-supported projects are helping reconnect fragmented rivers across the Carpathian Mountains, the Endangered Landscapes & Seascapes Programme is supporting restoration across the wider Făgăraș landscape. Led by Foundation Conservation Carpathia, the project is working to establish a 200,000-hectare wilderness reserve by securing land, restoring habitats and rebuilding ecological processes. To date, 87,485 hectares have been secured for long-term conservation, 845 hectares of forest have been restored using 2.5 million native seedlings, and 25 European bison and 62 Eurasian beavers have been returned to the landscape. Alongside this, 152 km of riverbank have been cleared of invasive species, helping strengthen ecological connectivity between freshwater and terrestrial habitats.
Southwest Carpathians, Romania
Similarly, in the Southwest Carpathians, five projects count with ORP’s support. From the Mureș watershed to the Caraș catchment, three completed identification projects and two active pre-demolition ones are setting the foundational stones to drive dam removal in the region. Combined, the two live preparatory projects are preparing the removal of 10 barriers to reconnect 65 km of river.
At the same time, the Endangered Landscapes & Seascapes Programme is supporting the development of a long-term restoration vision for the 700,345-hectare Southwest Carpathians landscape. Led by the Natura 2000 Coalition Romania Foundation, the project is bringing together communities, conservation organisations and public authorities to develop a shared strategy for safeguarding one of Europe’s largest wilderness areas. By combining ecological research, stakeholder engagement and planning for sustainable development, the initiative is laying the foundations for future restoration across forests, grasslands, river gorges and alpine habitats.
Rhodope Mountains to Black Sea, Southeast Bulgaria
Across Southeast Bulgaria, the Endangered Landscapes & Seascapes Programme is supporting the restoration of ecological networks across an 810,000-hectare corridor stretching from the Rhodope Mountains to the Black Sea. Led by the Bulgarian Society for the Protection of Birds, the project is restoring forests, grasslands, wetlands and riverine habitats to strengthen connectivity for wildlife, including eastern imperial eagle, Egyptian vulture and European souslik. Efforts include replacing 3,180 hectares of conifer plantations with native oak and mixed deciduous forests and creating new riverine forest habitat.
Like in Romania, dam removal remains a relatively new concept in Bulgaria. To help build momentum, ORP is supporting two projects that are building a barrier inventory and prioritising those that can – and should – be removed in the Veleka and Arda Rivers.
Together, these projects are helping reconnect ecosystems across Southeast Bulgaria, combining landscape-scale restoration with efforts to improve connectivity within river systems.
A connected future for Europe’s nature
ORP and ELSP convergence project areas are expanding to other regions in Europe such as Slovakia, Türkiye, Iceland and Italy.
In Italy’s central Apennines, the Open Rivers Programme and the Endangered Landscapes & Seascapes Programme are supporting complementary restoration efforts across the same landscape. Covering 525,000 hectares, the Endangered Landscapes & Seascapes Programme project, led by Rewilding Europe and Rewilding Apennines, is working to reconnect forests, grasslands and river valleys, restore natural processes, protect maturing woodlands and support nature-based economies across this Mediterranean mountain region. This work builds on a strong foundation of river restoration already supported by ORP. Through three completed projects and one ongoing initiative led by Rewilding Apennines, six obsolete barriers have been removed from the Liri and Giovenco rivers, resulting in the restoration of 13 kilometres of river.
Together, these efforts are helping reconnect ecosystems across the central Apennines, combining landscape-scale restoration with targeted action to restore river connectivity.
Apply for a grant
If you want to remove barriers in your river, apply for a grant from the Open Rivers Programme. The Programme runs three calls for applications each year, open to non-profit organisations and public entities. All eligibility criteria, grant types, and details about the application process can be found on this page.
