Valuing Nature: Right or Wrong?
As 2012 drew to a close, one environmental debate showed no sign of abating: should we or should we not ‘value nature’? Perhaps the answer is more complex than a simple yes or no. The idea that nature is to be valued in order to carve it up and sell it off to...
Upstream Thinking Wins Environment Award
South West Water’s flagship environmental programme, Upstream Thinking, has won a prestigious Utility Industry Achievement Award. The Trust has been working in partnership with South West Water since the projects inception in 2009 to reduce the cost of cleaning water...
First ‘River Improvement Auction’ in the UK; win-win for farmers, South West Water and the environment?
This summer, we've teamed up with researchers from the University of East Anglia and South West Water to pilot an innovative Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) scheme where farmers bid for funding from South West Water in a 'river improvement auction'. The river...
Bumper Year for Fish on the River Mole
There are early indications that populations of Atlantic salmon and sea trout are booming in the River Mole in Devon, after two consecutive years of record breaking catch statistics. Over recent decades, salmon populations have been in decline in many rivers across...
PES: Putting a price on the rivers or paying to protect them?
There has been much debate over recent weeks in the public domain about the possible merits and dangers of putting an economic value on nature (‘Putting a price on the rivers and rain diminishes us all’, George Monbiot, the Guardian, 6th August 2012 and ‘We must put a...
Upstream Thinking Project Wins Business Sustainability
Congratulations to South West Water for winning an award for the Upstream Thinking project at the Finance for the Future Awards. Upstream Thinking is an innovative project that aims to restore wetlands and promote environmentally sensitive farming in catchments across...