From all over Europe, from Iceland to Poland and Sweden, and from Norway to Spain, to Serbia and the UK, representatives of Europe’s lakes, seas, rivers and glaciers confluenced for the second edition of the Confluence of European Water Bodies 2024 at Ocean Space, Venice. Over 50 academics, lawyers, artists, ecologists and policy makers gathered here from 3 – 6 October 2024, with the aim to exchange, experience and learn about water representation. The emerging Embassy of the Baltic Sea was proudly represented by Robin Tidblom.

Learning system for water diplomacy

The Confluence of European Water Bodies is founded as an interdisciplinary research, support system and campaign for the representation of water in Europe. Born out of growing water challenges and demands for water democracy worldwide, the Confluence of European Water Bodies sprang from a collective pursuit of a deeper and cricital understanding of the ‘Rights of Nature’ in Europe. As a learning system for water diplomacy, new strategies for effectively representing water in Europe’s cultural, legal and political realms are being explored, rehearsed and advocated. The water bodies community converged for the first time in September 2023 at the shores of the saltwater lagoon the Mar Menor in Spain. Being the first European ecosystem with legal personhood, this fragile and severely contaminated ecosystem became an example and inspiration for nature protection in Europe.

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