Back to the future: LIFE supports rural communities in learning climate insights from history

When torrential rain and flash floods hit Czechia last summer, many feared a repeat of 2002 when dozens of people died, hundreds of thousands made homeless and billions of euros’ worth of damage caused in Prague.     

Ironically, in the countryside not far from the capital, it’s not floods but drought that are the problem. ‘The water is running out,’ explains Dan Pánek, LIFE WILL’s local project coordinator in the region. ‘The landscape is being exploited to the max, with no regard for what causes erosion.’  

Now on its second year, the Czech project is restoring three pilot wetland sites - two in Czechia and one across the border in Slovakia - before rolling out across another 30. It aims to increase the climate resilience of both agricultural landscapes and the people who live in them.  

In Němčice u Kolína, one of LIFE WILL’s pilot villages, Pánek points to the site of a former wetland which was drained to create more farmland. ‘There was a pond here sometime in the century before last and we want to use that space to bring water and hold it in pools. That will support biodiversity and keep enough water here.’  

‘We need to return and retain water in the landscape,’ adds Ondřej Nádvornik, Advisor at People in Need, one of LIFE WILL’s partners. ‘It’s a good way to prevent disaster and catastrophes such as droughts and floods.’  

Meanwhile, in a muddy field near Turnov in the heart of rural northern Czechia, a small group of conservationists - and their dogs - make slow progress across the boggy ground. It’s hard going through the puddles, lakes and streams - but they say these wetlands represent the future.  

‘We have a landscape designer here to tell us how this wetland was created and what it takes to manage it,’ explains Tereza Vohryzková from Beleco, another of the project partners. ‘We have an opportunity to see how the wetland works, which animals and plants are thriving here. It’s very interesting.’  

The restored Sedmihorky wetlands show what can be achieved using nature-based solutions. They have become home to many species of birds, including ash cranes, amphibians and aquatic invertebrates - as well as helping to protect neighbouring farmland from floods.  

LIFE WILL is just one of more than a thousand LIFE projects currently active across the EU. As well as contributing to the European Green Deal, the 2030 Biodiversity Strategy and the EU Strategy on adaptation to climate change, it also plays a key role in driving the Nitrates Directive; the Water Framework Directive; and the Floods Directive.