Plants growing in shallow water.

Important Freshwater Landscapes

Important Freshwater Landscapes are extensive regions with nationally significant concentrations of freshwater biodiversity, rich in threatened plants and animals. These places, from upland river landscapes to lush lowland pondscapes, are under threat, but they are also our biggest hope for freshwater biodiversity recovery.

Protecting the best

To build the Freshwater Network we need to protect the best remaining freshwater habitats. With our partners, we’ve now mapped these landscapes in England and Wales. Each Important Freshwater Landscape has six or more adjacent 10 x 10 km grid squares with either:

  • More than 20 freshwater Species of Conservation Concern, or
  • More than 30 km of streams and rivers with High status invertebrate communities.

The 24 Important Freshwater Landscapes cover 36% of England and Wales. This represents a significant opportunity: knowing which parts of the country are most important for freshwater life will allow us to better target measures to safeguard those areas, creating a shift in the way we protect our highest-quality freshwaters.

A national drive to recognise, protect and restore all freshwater habitat types at landscape scale in these regions could signal a pivotal moment in the recovery of freshwater species. In the long-term, it could achieve naturally functioning, self-sustaining populations of freshwater plants and animals.

Download the Freshwater Network brochure
Small pond surrounded by frosty plants with a sunny, blue sky behind.
illustration-b

- A pond in The Brecks and surroundings Important Freshwater Landscape.

24 Important Freshwater Landscapes have been identified where we can:

  • Protect the best remaining habitats through practical conservation
  • Reconnect fragmented Important Freshwater Areas
  • Secure national recognition of the value of Important Freshwater Landscapes as freshwater biodiversity hotspots to drive conservation work, ensuring their protection for future generations.

Important Freshwater Landscapes are identified at a 10km2 resolution, and contain a mixture of Important Freshwater Areas and areas of less importance for freshwater biodiversity. Note that many Important Freshwater Areas exist outside of Important Freshwater Landscapes. Important Freshwater Landscape boundaries are indicative, and intended to illustrate broad spatial patterns of freshwater biodiversity at the national level. Boundaries are not suitable for interpretation at the land-parcel level.

You can download the zip folder to access the GIS shapefile to make your own map.

Find all the key information of the GIS shapefile in the metadata file within the folder. Important Freshwater Landscape boundaries are fuzzy, and should be interpreted using local knowledge to identify appropriate locations for freshwater conservation action. A full description of the development of the data layer is given in our recent research paper in Ecological Solutions and Evidence (Biggs et al. 2025).

Our work in Important Freshwater Landscapes

Discover some of the places where we’re working in collaboration with our partners to protect Important Freshwater Landscapes. 

New Forest and Dorset Heaths

The New Forest’s pristine freshwaters, wetlands and coastal habitats are part of the New Forest and Dorset Heaths Important Freshwater Landscape.

Find out more
Oxford Area

Our Ock and Thame Farmers: Freshwater and Floodplain Restoration project is delivering landscape recovery and building the Freshwater Network across two lowland catchments.

Find out more
Woman crouching by pond, taking a water sample.
Yorkshire Dales and Forest of Bowland

Working with volunteers to identify priority ponds – and create new habitats – in Nidderdale, North Yorkshire.

Find out more

Explore the Freshwater Network

The Freshwater Network

The Freshwater Network is a national network of wilder, wetter, cleaner, more connected habitats to stop and reverse the decline in freshwater biodiversity.

The Freshwater Network
Historic Floodplains

The Freshwater Network will restore historic freshwater hotspots inside the one in 100-year floodplain by building networks of high-quality freshwater sites for wildlife.

 

Historic Floodplains
Group of people walking down a hill through a field, with a large pond behind.
Water Friendly Landscapes

Here, habitats will be created and restored to provide pathways for species to move across the landscape, adding further links outside of Important Freshwater Landscapes and Historic Floodplains.

Water Friendly Landscapes