£800k funding announced to protect freshwater habitats in Bucks

A Government grant totalling £811,000 has been awarded to a nature charity covering Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire to protect the counties fresh water.

Freshwater Habitats Trust has been tasked with allocating the funds to protect wetland nature.

Six grants have been rubber stamped in total costing the Government £4.3million, it picked Pioneering Nature Projects by Natural England.

Each covering a minimum of 500 hectares, the projects will restore landscapes across England – from Plymouth to Northumberland – and assess how carbon is captured and stored across different habitats, including grasslands, forests, wetlands and hedgerows.

The Oxfordshire–Buckinghamshire Freshwater Network project will focus on the role of smaller, peat-dominated wetlands, floodplains, wet grasslands and small waters in sequestering carbon in the landscape. These habitats are exceptionally important for freshwater wildlife, the trust says.

Landowners, public bodies and other conservation charities will be consulted during the project.

Eight sites which cover 6,500 hectares will be enhanced during the programme including alkaline fens and historic floodplains to species-rich wet grassland.

On completion, the trust hopes its work will lead to an increase in the number of unpolluted wetland and freshwater habitats in the counties.

Natural England will be given access to the sites to conduct research on these habitats’ potential to capture and store carbon.

The charities want to better understand how freshwaters and wetlands, which have been extensively drained and polluted over the last 250 years, could help to reduce the impacts of climate change.

Volunteer programmes will also be funded through the grant. A key part of this project, the GroWet initiative, which saw nearly people nurturing rare wetland plants at home before they were introduced to Oxfordshire’s wetlands.

Freshwater Habitats Trust CEO Professor Jeremy Biggs said: “It is very exciting to have been awarded one of these six major grants and to be playing a role in the national drive to test carbon capture methods.

“This funding will significantly boost the creation of the Freshwater Network, helping us to protect the very best freshwater habitats in Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire and building out from these biodiversity hotspots, providing an important demonstration of the Freshwater Network concept. The two counties are home to some of the richest freshwater habitats in the UK but many sensitive freshwater and wetland plants are on the edge of extinction in the area. We know that creating and restoring small habitats can bring game-changing benefits for plants and animals.

“We’ll be involving many different people as we start to build the Freshwater Network and this funding will support us to work with volunteers and connect people with their rich wetland and freshwater heritage. We’ll also be collaborating with the many organisations and individuals who have been already been instrumental in helping us to get the Freshwater Network up and running in Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire.”

It is hoped that funding projects like this one can be used to increase cross-government collaboration and address biodiversity loss, climate change and land use change. 

The Programme will run until March 2024.