River Restoration (RR) is a relatively new discipline which aims at defending river ecosystems because of both their intrinsic existence value and the services they can provide to humankind. It is a key component for the implementation of the Water Framework Directive (and others). Developing countries like Latin American (LA) can benefit a lot from introducing these idea at an early stage of planning and management because changes are far reaching and very fast. In Europe national centres, like CIRF (I), and European organizations, like the ECRR (www.ecrr.org), were born which are spreading quickly information and momentum for a broader action, while in LA RR is practically ignored and very few experiences can be found.

This project aims at filling this gap , starting from those research institutions which already showed sensitivity to the issue and linking them also to public management bodies in order to share knowledge and create engagement at the same time. A number of researchers and practitioners from Italy (CIRF which is running the secretary of ECRR) and Spain (which has the deepest links with LA and has recently launched a national strategy for RR in Spain) would bring their experience and vision to LA and face local challenges, while LA researchers and managers would mainly visit problems and projects sites in EU to see with their eyes the rationale and benefits of RR. Joint research activity to face selected case studies, site visits, workshops, sharing of publication and information and the set up of a joint web site are the main foreseen activities.