Protect and restore catchments from source to sea

Our water and wetland landscape is critically damaged. We have redundant weirs and dams disrupting the movement of fish and other wildlife; rivers isolated from their floodplains by hard defences; ponds and wetlands wiped off the map by drainage and agricultural intensification; and uplands that have been over-grazed, burnt and drained, polluting sources of drinking water and increasing the risk of flash flooding. 

Protect and restore rivers, lakes, ponds and wetlands in partnership with local communities. 

• By 2012, the Government and its agencies should encourage partnership in water management by adopting a local catchment scale approach to water quality, water resource and flood risk management.
• By 2012, the Government and its agencies should assess the cumulative effects of river engineering on wildlife and use powers to remove or mitigate the impact of redundant and poorly designed physical obstructions.
• By 2012, the Government should implement the Lawton Review’s recommendation to establish ecological restoration zones where networks of clean water ponds and wetlands are created to provide high quality wildlife corridors.
• By 2015, water companies should set out plans to increase investment in multifunctional catchment management schemes that protect raw water quality and enhance biodiversity, landscape and amenity.
• By 2015, the Government and its agencies should establish measures to restore and protect ecologically significant ponds, headwaters, streams and wetlands in the next generation of River Basin Management Plans.  

Blueprint members will work with Government, water companies, local authorities, landowners and local communities to deliver landscape scale conservation initiatives that provide long-term benefits for water, wildlife and people.