Confluence of European Water Bodies 2025

In September 2025, the Dutch North Sea will host the Confluence of European Water Bodies, a grassroots network of collectives representing more than 35 rivers, seas, lakes, glaciers, wetlands, and lagoons across Europe. Founded on the shores of Spain’s Mar Menor saltwater lagoon in 2023, the Confluence advocates for multispecies governance of European water ecosystems.

From September 21–24, 2025, we will gather for the third Confluence in Bergen aan Zee and Amsterdam. The three-day program will feature workshops, art, presentations, film screenings, a future-thinking session, an academic program, the Water Bodies Orchestra Try-Out, the Diplomatic Suitcase exhibition, and more. 

British author Robert Macfarlane will open the Confluence on Sunday, September 21, 2025, at De Balie, Amsterdam, with a talk on his new book Is A River Alive? Whether it’s the Amazon or the Amstel, our language, laws, and economies still treat rivers as resources — channels to be dredged, diverted, and controlled. In Is A River Alive?, Macfarlane explores the deep cultural, ecological, and spiritual bonds between people and waterways, asking: How would it change us to live not above the river, but alongside it?

The opening will also feature Drop, Ripple, Puddle, O, a performance by the Icelandic glacier collective Snæfellsjökul fyrir forseta (Snæfellsjökul for President).

As part of the 2025 Confluence program, the Dogger Bank Coalition will hold its Inaugural Meeting on Wednesday, September 24, 2025, at 6:00 pm in the Amstelkerk, Amsterdam. At the heart of the North Sea, Dogger Bank is a unique Natura 2000 site, a place of remarkable biodiversity despite its severely degraded state. Over the next three years, a broad coalition, led by the Embassy of the North Sea and the Doggerland Foundation, will work to strengthen its legal, cultural, and political representation while advancing both passive and active ecological restoration. During the inaugural gathering, coalition founders will share their principles, plans, research, and actions, and invite participants to engage in dialogue, exchange perspectives, and, if they wish, sign the founding declaration.