The Westcountry Rivers Trust is an environmental charity (Charity No: 1045806) established in 1995 to secure the preservation, protection, development and improvement of the rivers, streams, watercourses and water impoundments in the Westcountry and to advance the education of the public in the management of water.

A cornerstone of our philosophy is working in partnership with external individuals and organisations to share expertise and facilitate better information transfer. By collaborating with a whole range of stakeholders - ranging from individual businesses through to academic institutions, NGOs and government departments - the Trust aims to circumvent sectoral interests and encourages joint solutions to the complex environmental problems our society currently faces.

The Trust operates the Ecosystem Approach, which was designed by the IUCN. This approach allows us to implement environmental change at the appropriate level and means that rather than forcing our will on individuals and communities, we empower them to taken ownership, and thus responsibility for the work, thus creating sustainable change.

The principles of the Ecosystem Approach are:

1. Management objectives are a matter of social choice

2. Ecosystems must be managed in a human context

3. Ecosystems must be managed within natural limits

4. Management must recognise that change is inevitable

5. Ecosystem management must be undertaken at the appropriate level

6. Ecosystem management must seek to maintain or enhance ecosystem character and functioning at an appropriate level for social choice

7. Decision-makers should be guided by appropriate tools from science

8. Ecosystem manager should act with caution

9. A multi-disciplinary approach is needed

10. Ecosystem managers need to think globally but act locally

An example of using the Ecosystem Approach to deal with conservation issues is shown below:

Imagine a river which rises in a rural catchment, which has been farmed for centuries. The river flows through pasture, then woods, then through a conurbation until it reaches a city where it widens substantially. Eventually it flows through the city and back in the countryside, before exiting into the sea at a popular tourist spot.

The above scenario could give rise to a number of issues:

1. Intensification of farming leading to increased nutrient leaching, making water abstracted for human consumption expensive to treat, increasing costs of water companies treatment works, resulting in higher water bills.

2. Increased stock numbers leading to greater poaching of ground and increased sedimentation. This reduces fish spawning habitat, resulting in less fish. As fishing deteriorates, so does capital value of river/fishery resulting in less investment. Less investment results in less care and attention for the river, and less interest in its well being….this is a vicious circle.

3. Sedimentation eventually arrives in estuary where it blocks shipping channels. This has to be dredged, which is expensive and very damaging to the environment, and is usually then dumped at sea…destroying a pristine marine environment.

4. Chemicals from headwaters flow through city, into coastal catchment where people swim and surf. They suffer from effects of bacteria etc in the water and tourism reduces. This has a knock on effect on the local economy.

5. Wetland being drained for farming means that water rushes through the river faster, as there is no stabilising effect and gradual release any longer. This leads to flooding in the city costing millions of pounds in insurance and requiring flood defence works.

All of this is a problem because the headwaters of the river have been abused. Farmers farm intensively because the Common Agricultural Policy tells them to. Their brief is to produce lots of food, very cheaply and this they do very well. However if the system could be fractionally altered, this could have a massive benefit for the rivers. This is where the Ecosystem Approach comes into play.

1. Modulate the Common Agricultural Payments to protect wildlife zones and rivers, rather than require intensive production

2. Create buffer zones along rivers for wildlife, grasses and trees

3. Re-flood wetlands to create bird friendly zones and water carrying capacity

These 3 simple actions, taken at the appropriate level result in the removal of all the issues listed above. They may not repair the damage done, although they will certainly help, but they will prevent further damage. They will result in an improved and protected environment, reduced flooding, reduced dredging, increased wildlife and biodiversity, improved summer and winter flows, improved fisheries and economic enhancement of river and a nicer landscape with more varied crops and cover.

Imagine the costs of the problems, and look at the savings generated by the solution…it is a win/win situation with no-one losing out….food for thought.