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Fight future flooding by working with nature

As the nation now analyses the flood devastation suffered over recent days, The Wildlife Trusts urge Gordon Brown and his new government to make the environment the top priority and work with nature in dealing with the impacts of climate change.

This current crisis stems from years of building on flood plains, our over-reliance on man-made flood defences, and the removal of wetlands which can act as natural sponges, soaking up water and slowing it down in times of flooding.

The Government can now react in one of two ways; by creating hard large-scale flood defences or take a different approach to flood management and work with nature. The Wildlife Trusts believe working with nature is vital. We need to revise our policies on water, agriculture, planning and regeneration. We need to restore ecosystems on a landscape scale. We need to re-create wetlands and manage our uplands to slow down run-off into rivers and streams. And we need to ensure that, when we do need to build, that this is in the right place and done in the right way.

Stephanie Hilborne, chief executive of The Wildlife Trusts, says: “Over the last 12 months, the media has documented how our changing seasons have affected wildlife. These recent floods show only too brutally how climate change is also affecting people.

“In the face of climate change we must restore our ecosystems and natural processes at a speed and on a scale we once would have thought impossible. We need to restore and create ‘living’ landscapes to allow people and wildlife the room to adapt to climate change. Gordon Brown’s government can lead a revolution in our approach to the natural environment through serious investment in habitat restoration and re-creation.”

The Wildlife Trusts’ report, A Living Landscape, demonstrates how we are working at a landscape scale to prepare people and wildlife for climate change. The report has a four-point plan which calls for urgent Government action in addressing climate change and restoring the UK’s battered ecosystems across our towns and countryside.

For further information please contact Anna Guthrie on 07887 754659 or Jules Acton on 07917 574837.