Making space for water

The Rivers Trust shares their new campaign calling for the creation and maintenance of a network of nature-rich river corridors across the entire UK

Whether it’s through over-straightening, putting in barriers, culverting, disconnecting from floodplains, or modifying banks, we have altered our rivers so much to meet our needs that they are no longer fit for purpose. When rivers are allowed to function naturally, they support a healthy, resilient landscape – and communities too. That’s why we are calling for one fundamental thing: Space for Water.

Making Space for Water is a campaign calling for the creation and maintenance of a network of nature-rich river corridors across the entire UK. In practice, that means giving rivers room to recover, and using nature-based solutions such as riparian tree planting, wetland creation, river re-wiggling, reconnecting rivers to their floodplain, or introducing beaver populations to make our rivers more resilient and better support the communities around them.

We can’t achieve this goal without farmers and land managers, who we know want to look after the environment as well as protect their business. The problem is that the current financial and regulatory landscape makes it difficult for them. As part of the campaign, we’ve launched a petition calling on the UK government to provide easily accessible funding schemes for thriving river corridors. If we get this right, we can improve water quality, increase flood and drought resilience, boost biodiversity, and help safeguard food production.