MERLIN’s 2nd Hydropower Sector Roundtable brought together 16 experts from the private sector (e.g. energy companies and their representative bodies) and non-governmental organisations. Discussions were framed around the cooperation points identified in the Sector Briefing informed by the 1st roundtable and a desktop review of peer reviewed and non-peer reviewed literature. Key issues during the Roundtable were the better inclusion of NbS in licensing processes, the removal of obsolete barriers as an opportunity for the sector to engage in NbS, and the ability to measure the sector’s impact on freshwater biodiversity improvement.

On May 16th, the 2nd MERLIN Insurance Sector Roundtable was held, with around 20 participants from diverse institutions in relation with the insurance sector. During the online event, we looked at the role of the regulatory and policy framework in incentivising or hindering the insurance sector to contribute to nature restoration. The policies discussed included the EU Taxonomy, Solvency II, or the Nature Restoration Law, and the summary of the obtained results are available in the report.

As part of the WP4 work package the 2nd Navigation Sector Roundtable was successful with the participation of 9 representatives from EU wide umbrella organizations and sector partners responsible for rivers like Danube, Rhine, Sava. The discussion was mainly about the cooperation points identified earlier and about the Nature-based-Solution approach. The participants discussed what NbS means in the context of the navigation, what are the knowledge gaps, conflicts of interest or win-win solutions. The responsibilities of the stakeholders on some rivers were discussed in order to find the motivations to move toward NbS and identify knowledge gaps. The findings of the RT2 are available in the final notes.

The second Peat Extraction Sector roundtable brought together 23 experts from private and non-governmental organisations across Europe and abroad. The participants discussed the meaning of large-scale restoration and NbS for the sector and the policy changes, kind of financing and cross-sector cooperation needed to enable large-scale restoration. The participants noted that different member state conditions, including land ownership and use regulations, limit the potential to undertake large-scale restoration. However, a viable business case backed by clear legislation and strong collaboration between different stakeholders in the landscape could enable this.

The 2nd Water supply and Sanitation Sector Roundtable brought 17 experts together from the public and private sectors and NGOs, to discuss the challenges and benefits of upstream freshwater restoration using large-scale NbS. The lack of data and capacity for NbS application has been highlighted as an significant constraint, whereas establishing partnerships with other stakeholders, such as the insurance sector or municipalities were mentioned as a good way forward. With clearer data on NbS benefits and more collaboration, private and public funding can better be attracted as well.