Our work with Defra
Severn & Wye Nature has secured government support for work with farmers along the Severn, Warwickshire Avon and related tributaries. The Severn is the UK’s longest river with a flat flood plain running for about 140 miles into the Welsh hills. The project was designed to find ways to fund nature recovery on flood-affected land.
We secured substantial government funding through the Defra’s trailblazing Natural Environment Investment Readiness Fund (NEIRF). This Defra scheme currently funds 86 projects across the country, helping farmers to develop nature-friendly projects that produce vital revenue, while building a sustainable economic model that can be reproduced at scale. Our project looked at finding new ways of attracting funding for nature-friendly changes to the way farmland is used.
Focused initially on specific farms in Shropshire, the work developed approaches which can be deployed in flood-affected areas along the length of the Severn, the Warwickshire Avon and their tributaries – looking at introducing wetlands, floodplain meadows and woodland
The project partners
The project group involved Severn Rivers Trust, National Trust, WWT and the Wildlife Trusts of Montgomeryshire, Shropshire, Worcestershire, Warwickshire and Gloucestershire. Our financial partner was Finance Earth.
Working with farmers
Farmers are at the heart of the project and the work directly related to the creation of business cases for wetland and Natural Flood Managements on individual farms. Severn & Wye Nature are partnering with farmers to define ways in which they can make changes along the flood-affected river to benefit nature and deliver a realistic economic return.
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