A reset for freshwaters: our call to the new government

1 Start with the smallest

Small waters are the most cost-effective part of the water environment to manage.

We need to start at the top of stream catchments and work down. Using new ponds, we can create networks of high quality freshwater habitats. If designed and sited well, these will be quickly colonised by aquatic plants and animals. Starting with the smallest will bring rapid benefits at a time when change is urgent. 

Policy: 

• Account for the disproportionate contribution of small waterbodies to biodiversity goals by creating numerical targets for small waters (kilometres of streams improved, number of ponds created) alongside existing area-based nature recovery targets (e.g. 30 by 30, Biodiversity Net Gain).  

• Initiate a national pond creation programme to reverse historic pond losses, aiming to strategically create and restore 400,000 clean water ponds by 2050.

• Create a national plan for restoring Britain’s historic floodplains. 

2 Bring back clean water

Tackling pollution in our larger rivers and lakes is vital, but this will take time.

Because of their small catchments, small freshwaters can be protected from pollution, even in otherwise urban or intensively managed landscapes. By restoring and creating small waterbodies in pockets of land protected from pollution, we can bring clean water back to our towns and countryside. 

Policy: 

• Fund the restoration of headwater streams, including prioritising upgrades to small ‘descriptive’ wastewater treatment plants. 

• Revise Water Environment Regulations to properly integrate small waters, still and flowing, into River Basin Management Plans. 

• Use large scale pond and Floodplain Wetland Mosaic creation projects to bring back clean water to the landscape quickly. 

3 Protect the best

Britain still has some amazing rivers, lakes, ponds and wetlands, but their wildlife is isolated and increasingly under threat.

It is essential to stop the decline of our best sites, protecting their rare plants and animals as the sources for recovery across the rest of the landscape. The UK has traditionally placed most emphasis on cleaning up pollution first, and protecting what is in good condition has often come second. This approach is failing. Instead, by protecting and then building out from our most important freshwater habitats, we can create connected networks of freshwaters large and small, allowing species to spread to new sites and respond to climate change. 

Policy: 

• Adopt a Freshwater Network approach nationally (within the Land Use Framework) and regionally (in Local Nature Recovery Strategies) to identify freshwater biodiversity hotspots and build wilder, wetter, better and more connected freshwater landscapes. 

• Adopt concepts, pioneered by US regulators, that freshwaters exist in a mosaic of small and large interconnected habitats. Map and manage these habitats as a whole network in reframed Catchment Management Plans.