Herman Wanningen – We Are River People

Wanningen grew up in a small town called Dwingelo, on a farm with a brook flowing nearby. He loved spending time in the brook, swimming , catching fish, and observing aquatic insects. When he attended university, he studied biology and environmental chemistry.  His career started in 1996 but, things really began moving forward when he went to work, in 2000, for a regional water authority Hunze and Aa’s. His task was to work on ecological restoration of rivers and lakes, and he discovered early on that it was easier to engage people by talking about fish rather than water chemistry or aquatic insects. He also started to think more broadly about the three spined stickleback fish, river lamprey and European eels in the rivers and all the barriers to their upstream and downstream migrations. Together with his colleagues he embraced the from sea to source concept, as many species need to move freely between the sea, estuaries and the rivers upstream to fulfill their lifecycle.

With a natural talent for inspiring others to action, Wanningen developed connections and alliances with local angling organizations, other water authorities, and non-governmental organizations. This led to more funding and sponsorships for migratory fish related projects and, in turn, inspired the water authority’s board to agree to more river restoration measures.

That same year, Wanningen created the World Fish Migration Foundation which, for the next 10 years, made World Fish Migration Day a biennial global celebration of free-flowing rivers. During that time, Wanningen also worked with colleagues in Europe to create the Dam Removal Europe movement. Today, those efforts have resulted in hundreds of new dam removal and river restoration projects. It also resulted in a new European target of 25,000km of free flowing rivers by 2030, set in the European Nature Restoration Law. And now thousands of practitioners are part of this movement.

One key to these successes has been Wanningen’s recognition that, when people have fun and see themselves as part of a larger movement, they will be inspired to even greater action. So Wanningen commissioned several Happy Fish sculptures to travel to locations where fish passage and river restoration projects were taking place, with the photos and videos spreading through social media and bringing international recognition to local and regional projects. Similarly, Wanningen and his colleagues at the World Fish Migration Foundation held a Eurofishion song contest, patterned after the wildly popular Eurovision song competition, inviting entries focused on river restoration and fish passage.

The contest was a success, with the first winner hailing from Kenya.  Also, Wanningen never forgot the importance of engaging children in support of river restoration and fish passage. Each celebration of World Fish Migration Day has included contests to highlight children’s art depicting fish and rivers.

Wanningen is proud of all that has resulted from his work over the years promoting fish passage and river restoration. He is quick to point out that it has been a team effort, involving colleagues at the World Fish Migration Foundation and Dam Removal Europe, as well as organizations such as The Nature Conservancy, World Wildlife Fund, American Rivers, and many other governmental and non-governmental organizations. While he recognizes that some dams provide benefits for power generation and water storage, Wanningen wants to continue working to spur river restoration around the globe by removing obsolete and unsafe dams.

In 2024, Wanningen decided it was time to step away from the World Fish Migration Foundation and focus on his personal well-being . He joined McMillen, a global engineering firm specializing in dam removal as the European River Connectivity and Dam Removal  market lead. In that role, he is working to promote river restoration and dam removal across Europe, where more than 1 million barriers have been identified in rivers.

Fortunately, with McMillen’s support, Wanningen continues to lead the organization of World Fish Migration Day. He says he hopes it will continue to grow as it is celebrated every two years around the world. “That would be amazing,” Wanningen says. Those celebrations, and all the dams removed and rivers restored, will be the best fireworks he has launched.