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...
The Trust Wins £4 million for the Restoration of Rivers Across the South West
Here at the Westcountry Rivers Trust, we are pleased to announce that we have won funding to deliver over £4 million of restoration work over the next three years on river catchments across the South West. River and catchment restoration projects will take place on...
A New Approach to Catchment Management for the River Tamar
Last week (27th March), the Westcountry Rivers Trust hosted the launch meeting of an ambitious new Catchment Management project for the River Tamar, a year-long pilot project funded by Defra. The meeting was attended by representatives of local businesses and farmers,...