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
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- Lofthouse Moor in Nidderdale AONB

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.
Map of England and Wales with 24 Important Freshwater Landscapes marked up as pale green blobs.

- Important Freshwater Landscapes map.

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.

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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.

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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.

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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