Aerial view of fields with trees and ponds.

Wetland Opportunity Areas

The Freshwater Network has been created using two building blocks: Wetland Opportunity Areas and Important Freshwater Areas. Wetland Opportunity Areas are places to improve, where, together, we will restore and create habitats to build out from Important Freshwater Areas.

Bringing clean water back to the landscape

Wetland Opportunity Areas are the places where freshwater habitats can be created and restored to expand and link Important Freshwater Areas. Here, we’ll establish high-quality freshwater and wetland habitats so wildlife can recolonise from remaining biodiversity hotspots.

Clean water ponds, small lakes and wetland habitat will be created or restored, and land will be improved to clean-up our streams and rivers. All of this will bring unpolluted water back to our towns and countryside.

We have identified Wetland Opportunity Areas in places that are less intensively managed or where habitat creation or land deintensification could occur to improve water quality. These include woodland and forest, priority river habitat headwater areas, low-intensity grassland and alluvial river valleys.

Wetland Opportunity Areas allow rich, diverse and near natural freshwater communities to spread back into our landscapes: from protected sites and nature recovery networks, damaged SSSIs and drained moorland bogs, to new woodlands, unfertilised grasslands and retired farmland.

Download the Freshwater Network brochure
Two ponds in a field
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- New clean water ponds created in the Water Friendly Farming project.

Building the Freshwater Network

Find out more about how we’re building the Freshwater Network in Wetland Opportunity Areas.

Man pond dipping with net.
Waddesdon wetland creation

Freshwater plants and animals are benefiting from a two-hectare wetland creation project in this Wetland Opportunity Area in Buckinghamshire.

Waddesdon Wetland Creation
Aerial view of digger next to large area of bare ground to create a pond.
Newt Conservation Partnership

Through the Newt Conservation Partnership, we’re creating high quality habitats for freshwater wildlife in Wetland Opportunity Areas.

Newt Conservation Partnership
Pond with tree reflected on the water, blue sky behind.
Water Friendly Farming

We’re testing the effectiveness of landscape-wide agri-environment measures and reducing the impact of rural land use in this Wetland Opportunity Area in Leicestershire.

Water Friendly Farming

Important Freshwater Areas

Important Freshwater Areas are the remaining high-quality places, which will be protected and maintained. The Freshwater Network will use Wetland Opportunity Areas to build out from these areas by restoring and creating habitats.

Important Freshwater Areas
Photo of Starfruit and green plants on surface of a pond.
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