diff --git a/etc/mvn/cmp_core.xml b/etc/mvn/cmp_core.xml
index e61ecfb35..b26f1943a 100644
--- a/etc/mvn/cmp_core.xml
+++ b/etc/mvn/cmp_core.xml
@@ -19,7 +19,6 @@
         <exclude>*:batik-*</exclude>
         <!-- exclude imageio-ext from CORE build, but include some selected jars below -->
         <exclude>it.geosolutions.imageio-ext:*</exclude>
-        <exclude>org.gdal:gdal</exclude>
         <!-- we'll package postgresql to lib/ext/dbdatastore/ below -->
         <exclude>org.postgresql:postgresql</exclude>
       </excludes>
diff --git a/etc/mvn/cmp_plus.xml b/etc/mvn/cmp_plus.xml
index a82108174..7d5634ed1 100644
--- a/etc/mvn/cmp_plus.xml
+++ b/etc/mvn/cmp_plus.xml
@@ -38,7 +38,6 @@
       <excludes>
         <exclude>*:jaxb-*</exclude>
         <exclude>*:javax.activation-*</exclude>
-        <exclude>org.gdal:gdal</exclude>
       </excludes>
     </dependencySet>
     <!-- place all jaxb jars separately, used by imageio-ext, set-attribute, view-manager currently -->
diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index 1011ea4e5..fa93d428a 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -1791,13 +1791,6 @@ ${project.artifactId} ${project.version} Changelog
             <groupId>it.geosolutions.imageio-ext</groupId>
             <artifactId>imageio-ext-gdalframework</artifactId>
             <version>${imageio-ext.version}</version>
-            <exclusions>
-              <exclusion>
-                <!-- let's choose our own gdal version above -->
-                <groupId>org.gdal</groupId>
-                <artifactId>gdal</artifactId>
-              </exclusion>
-            </exclusions>
         </dependency>
         <dependency>
             <groupId>it.geosolutions.imageio-ext</groupId>