Make Water White Paper work for wildlife
A plan for the recovery of our wetlands,
rivers and the wider natural environment must be put in place to
help tackle England's water crisis, according to The Wildlife
Trusts, as the Government publishes its Water White Paper.
The Wildlife Trusts welcomes the commitment
in Water for Life to a 'catchment approach' where
landowners and key organisations work together on a large scale to
protect and restore rivers and wetlands. The Government must hold
firm to this, and ensure sufficient resources and support are
provided with urgency.
The Wildlife Trusts are already
seeing significant benefits to using the catchment approach. Both
Devon and Cornwall Wildlife Trusts are partners in South West
Water's Upstream Thinking project, which is addressing water
quality issues by working with landowners to change management
practices. Benefits so far include reduced fertiliser costs for
farmers, and record web counts of marsh fritillary
butterflies.
Helen Perkins, Living Landscape Development
Manager for The Wildlife Trusts, said: "It is encouraging to
see Government re-affirm the value of catchment scale action, which
has the potential to enhance entire ecosystems, in a cost-effective
way. The commitment to link catchment projects with the new Nature
Improvement Areas is also welcome.
"Taking a joined up approach is key:
rivers don't exist in isolation. Mountain, moorland, and upland
heath provide 70% of the UK's drinking water with 17 billion litres
of water a day taken from ecosystems by public water demand. The
benefits to investing in healthy, functioning ecosystems are clear.
But we are still a long way from a totally integrated approach to
protecting them. In fact, around 30% of the services they deliver
are currently declining.*
"An overarching framework for
restoration of the natural environment is needed: one which
recognises the interdependencies of land and water management. The
principles the Government has set out are sound but will they
succeed without a bigger and well resourced plan for nature's
recovery?"
The Wildlife Trusts have concerns about the
timescales mentioned in the White Paper, such as implementation of
a new abstraction regime not due until the mid to late 2020s.
Helen
continued: "Water shortages present immediate threats to
wildlife. Low water levels from both abstraction and drought
conditions can trigger serious declines in species such as water
vole, and compromise the breeding success of fish species such as
brown trout. The long timescales and the piecemeal way in which
changes will be introduced is a concern. With the drought situation
currently unfolding, action is needed now."
Contact
information:
Anna Guthrie (Media & PR Manager)
Office: 01636 670075
Mobile: 07887 754659
Email: aguthrie@wildlifetrusts.org
Tanya Perdikou (Media & Campaigns
Officer)
Office: 01636 670057
Mobile: 07887 754657
Email: tperdikou@wildlifetrusts.org
Notes for
editors:
*Figures from the National Ecosystem
Assessment (2011) http://uknea.unep-wcmc.org/Resources/tabid/82/Default.aspx
Water For Life can be downloaded
from Defra's website: http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/quality/water/legislation/whitepaper/
Nature Improvement Areas
(NIAs)
NIAs should contain all the components set
out for an ecological network in the Making Space for Nature report
(September 2010). They should enhance the ecological network
by undertaking the following actions:
- Improving the management of existing
wildlife sites
- Increasing the size of existing wildlife
sites
- Increasing the number of wildlife
sites
- Improving connectivity between sites
- Creating wildlife corridors
NIAs provide a key mechanism for restoring
the natural environment across administrative boundaries to benefit
people and wildlife. They could facilitate the local
integration of a range of delivery mechanisms, policies and funding
which affect the way land is used and managed. NIAs can help
solve issues such as habitat fragmentation, water quality, flood
risk management and species loss.
Case
study: Devon Wildlife Trust's Working Wetlands project http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4vCbz0Fb_Y
Working Wetlands represents the culmination
of more than 20 years of conservation effort in an internationally
important corner of the ecological landscape of Devon; the Culm.
The term Culm grassland is used to describe the unimproved wet
pasture scattered across the Culm measures.
Restoration of the Culm forms the basis for
long term investment plans between South West Water and Devon
Wildlife Trust. South West Water came to a recognition that
restoring Culm grassland in river valleys is a crucial part of the
upstream water-storing and cleaning
process. Intensive farmland sheds water more
rapidly, which exacerbates flooding downstream and in
turn washes fertilisers into the water supply. These nutrients,
chemicals and soils have to be removed from the water supply at the
filtration stage - using chemicals, energy and expense. The
objective is to reverse this situation by restoring Culm
grasslands to store and gradually release water and improve
water quality.
Devon Wildlife Trust provides a
comprehensive advisory service to farmers within three priority
areas and covering 65,000 hectares. As well as receiving
support through Agri-environment
schemes, Farmers involved with Devon's Working
Wetlands project often have reduced fertilizer costs.
The benefits to wildlife of this approach
are already showing. Web counts of marsh fritillary
butterflies, which thrive in Culm grassland, reached record highs
on Devon Wildlife Trust's Volehouse Moor nature reserve in
2010.
The Wildlife Trusts (TWT)
http://www.wildlifetrusts.org/
There are 47 individual Wildlife Trusts
covering the whole of the UK. All are working for an
environment rich in wildlife for everyone. Our vision is to
create A
Living Landscape and secure Living Seas. We manage around 2,300
nature reserves and every year we advise thousands of landowners
and organisations on how to manage their land for wildlife. Each
Wildlife Trust is working within its local communities to inspire
people about the future of their area: their own Living Landscapes
and Living Seas.