Supporting local partnerships

Our population has grown rapidly, urbanisation has occurred on a massive scale, and we are demanding more food at cheaper prices than ever before. Unfortunately, many of these changes have occurred at the cost of healthy river systems. Problems like water pollution, increased flood risk, loss of biodiversity and soil erosion have brought many rivers to their knees. We all suffer when rivers do—and we all benefit when they’re healthy. There is a clear need for us to work together for rivers.

At The Rivers Trust we know that in order to truly improve river environments, we must look at the whole river catchment - where the water comes from, its journey through the landscape and what impacts it along the way.

Working as the secretariat of the Catchment Based Approach (CaBA), we support over 100 community partnerships who bring together local knowledge and expertise to deliver integrated management of land and water.

CaBA brings together government, water companies, businesses, NGOs, community groups, landowners, and farmers to agree priorities and develop shared action plans.

Working collaboratively can lead to major cost savings too. For example, planting woodland or restoring wetland to increase biodiversity could also protect communities downstream from flooding, prevent drinking water pollution, reduce soil loss from farmland and help reduce drought, if carefully planned. If the funding for these measures is shared between all the beneficiaries, the work becomes more affordable.