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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ASftS joined the second edition of the Confluence at the shores of the Venice Lagoon in 2024. Academics, lawyers, artists, ecologists and policy makers gathered there with the aim to exchange, experience and to learn about Europe’s various modes of activism for nature protection, creating ceremonies to weave strong relationships with human ánd non human water bodies, and to rehearse new narratives for an ecological and intergenerational politics. In early 2025, ASftS joined the movement as a representative of the deep sea. The third edition of the Confluence of European Water Bodies will take place in the Netherlands, from 21 – 24 September 2025.

Read more about the Water bodies