Cooperation between the nine states in the Rhine watershed: A Journey from Source to Sea: Episode 2

900km into the journey, Hannah meets Marc Daniel Heintz, the Head of Secretariat at the International Commission for the Protection of the Rhine (ICPR) based in Koblenz, Germany. In this episode, they discuss how the ICPR facilitates cooperation between the nine states in the Rhine watershed and how fish migration demonstrates the connection between river health and ocean health.

In September 2024, Hannah Muir, a marine researcher set off on a journey cycling down the Rhine River, to learn from locals about their connection to the river and about how they’re helping to restore and protect their water system. Hannah’s goal was to learn about how positive actions on the river can benefit our ocean. Tune into this nine-part series as Hannah interviews experts along the Rhine, exploring what motivates people to protect these systems and to hear about their vision for the river’s future.

This nine-part series showcases some of the people and projects trying to improve the quality of the Rhine River for the benefit of society and nature, exploring the motivations and visions of the people driving this change.

Funded by the David Henderson Inspiring Journey Grant.

Want to go on your own inspiring journey? Become an IMarEST member and apply for the grant, deadline 31 August 2025: https://www.imarest.org/education-and-training/awards/david-henderson-inspiring-journey.html

In September 2024, I cycled over 1,400 
km/880 km down the Rhine River for 3 weeks, to explore how local actions to restore and 
protect the river can benefit our ocean. Join me on this 9-part series where I explore 
different topics with local people along the river that are driving positive change.
Just over halfway into my journey at 900 km/560 miles, I had the privilege of meeting with 
Daniel Heintz, the Executive Secretary at the International Commission for the Protection 
of the Rhine (ICPR) based in Koblenz, Germany. All the children learning at school 
that water is really a cycle: the rain falls from the clouds then it 
goes into the river system as discharge, into the ocean by evaporation, then you have 
clouds again. It s so normal. Yeah, just keep in mind that the river system doesn’t know any 
borders, doesn’t know and national frontiers, so if you have pollution it goes across the 
borders… it goes into to the sea, and you have to deal with it and find solutions together.
I chatted with Daniel about how the ICPR facilitates cooperation between the 
nine states in the Rhine watershed. The ICPR is a platform for the members states and 
for the states in Rhine River basin to organise themselves, and to cooperate on questions that 
they cannot solve on national level alone. For example, migratory fish, but also 
pollution in the river. Because the river knows no national borders, and you have 
to manage the river system as a whole. The ICPR was established in 1950 when 
countries realised that they cannot solve their hydrological and ecological problems 
on their own: they need to collaborate. Our main work is based on the contribution from 
National experts. So, we have international expert groups on all kinds of topics. For example, 
migratory fish, chemical monitoring of the water quality, biological monitoring, and the 
national states in the Rhine basin send their experts, their national experts, to our 
international expert groups meetings. But we’re also co-operate with other 
organisations, like the OSPAR and the organisations responsible for the North 
Sea, for the Wadden Sea, and for the salmon living in the Atlantic Ocean, because 
all those topics are connected. While significant progress has been made 
towards managing the Rhine as a whole, Daniel explained that there is a need for 
even greater collaboration in future, away from silo thinking towards collaboration across 
all river sectors and marine organisations too. I think it’s going to be better in the future. I 
mean there are improvements in the past already. Now, each group develops its own plan, but 
we talk to each other a lot, and that way we ensure that the plans are coherent. In the past 
I think that when they used to be different, people didn t even talk to each other and that 
has improved a lot. But maybe in the future it can even merge more towards a common plan.
Just think of those young protesters and their slogan there is no life on a dead planet . 
There is no economy on a dead planet. All the economical actions have an impact. And 
if they have a negative impact on ecology, it’s also a cost in money that you 
have to include in the calculations. The connection between river health and 
ocean health is no more apparent than in fish migration between the river and sea.
We are now dealing with migratory fish, the salmon returning numbers are not as expected and experts 
are trying to find out the reasons. Of course, they also look into the marine environment, 
because if the problem is in the marine environment you have to tackle it there. But I 
think there are some hints now because numbers are developing well in Denmark that the marine 
is affected but probably not the biggest one now. If you have such a kind of study, investigation, 
you cannot just look until the Haringvliet in the Netherlands in the estuary and then stop. If this 
animal has a life cycle that includes the ocean, you have to look at the whole.
Fish migration is one of the clearest examples of how the health of our rivers and 
oceans is connected. Tune in next time hear from Ruedi Bösiger about river restoration 
and conservation projects by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) in Switzerland, supporting 
migratory fish populations in the Rhine.