Wata Rivers · River, wetland and fisheries consultancy

Rivers, wetlands and fisheries: from evidence to projects that get built.

Wata Rivers is a consultancy based in Aveiro, Portugal. We work with water authorities, municipalities, NGOs and engineering firms on river and wetland restoration, fisheries, and the data behind them: collecting the evidence, building the case, bringing the stakeholders on board and managing delivery, so that plans turn into projects on the ground.

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What we do

We are ecologists who manage projects. We sit between the authority, the engineers, the scientists and the people who live by the water.

River and wetland restoration

Dam and weir removal, river continuity, floodplain and wetland restoration, nature-based solutions for floods and drought. From feasibility and permitting support to implementation oversight and monitoring aligned with the Water Framework Directive and the EU Nature Restoration Regulation.

Fisheries

Freshwater and marine: fish migration and passage, fisheries assessments, bycatch and observer programmes, and the link between fisheries management and habitat restoration.

Data, monitoring and GIS

Field data collection, monitoring and evaluation design, data management and GIS analysis and mapping, so that decisions and reports rest on evidence you can trace.

Strategy and stakeholders

Roadmaps, business cases and decision tools for national and basin-scale programmes, EU project preparation and coordination, and the stakeholder work that turns a priority list into projects with owners and support. In English, French, Portuguese and Spanish.

Where we work

Based in Portugal, working across Europe, the Atlantic and Lusophone Africa.

LuxembourgPublic water administration

Barrier removal strategy and technical support

National-level planning for river continuity, stakeholder mobilisation and on-demand technical advice to the authority and its engineering contractors, with Dutch and Belgian partners.

PortugalHome base

Rivers, wetlands and coastal fisheries

Based in Aveiro, on the Ria de Aveiro lagoon. Restoration planning, fisheries and monitoring work with public bodies, NGOs and research institutions.

United StatesWith engineering and ecological partners

Ecological assessments and river projects

Teaming with North American consultancies, bringing field ecology, fisheries and European restoration practice to their projects.

Cabo Verde and Lusophone AfricaRegion of focus

Water, floods and coastal fisheries

Portuguese-language capacity and first-hand experience of small island and West African contexts, from catchment hydrology and nature-based solutions to fisheries observer training.

Team

Wata Rivers was founded in Aveiro in 2026. Small team, senior time: you deal with the people doing the work, and we bring in partners for what we don't do ourselves, such as civil and hydraulic engineering.

Ruben Rocha

Founder and Managing Director

Ecologist (MSc Applied Ecology, University of Aveiro) who came to consulting through the delivery side of restoration: Programme Coordinator at the World Fish Migration Foundation, then project work at McMillen, an international engineering firm, where he prepared the monitoring and evaluation plan for Luxembourg's first dam removal. Before that he coordinated freshwater work at a conservation NGO in Portugal, supported African wetland sites at the Convention on Wetlands Secretariat in Switzerland, trained fisheries observers in Senegal and worked on marine biodiversity in the Azores and at Cabo Verde's agricultural research institute.

Part of the Dam Removal Europe network and the World Fish Migration Day community. Portuguese, Cape Verdean Creole, English, French and Spanish.

Sara Lopes

Partner, strategic partnerships, public policy and governance

Twenty years in public policy and government. Minister in Cabo Verde for ten years (2006 to 2015), including the portfolios for maritime economy, environment and spatial planning, where she led the Blue Growth charter with FAO, fisheries agreement negotiations with the EU, Japan and China, and the national framework against illegal fishing. Earlier a member of the Cabo Verde and ECOWAS parliaments; later senior advisor to the Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs of Timor-Leste. Doctoral research in governance and public policy at the University of Aveiro.

Currently Senior Advisor for Strategic Partnerships and Lusophone Africa at the Fisheries Transparency Initiative. Portuguese, Cape Verdean Creole, French, English and Spanish.

"Wata" is water in West African Pidgin.