6 Wetland Futures Report 2013: The Value of Healthy Wetlands
Overall policy panel
Two key sectors to engage with – agriculture & planning
Alastair Driver, National Conservation Manager, Environment Agency
1.
Agriculture – topsoil in rivers - an avoidable problem:
•
2.2M tonnes of soil is lost from the land every year
and 60% of this is washed into rivers
•
This costs £45M per annum in terms of loss of topsoil
to the farmer, dredging of watercourses and water
quality treatment and that’s not accounting for the
long-term impact.
•
It is the farmers themselves who are paying much
of the price – this amount of topsoil is worth
approximately £40M – so they are literally washing
their assets down the drain.
Incentive schemes alone are not enough – the sheer
economics should be incentive enough for most farmers
to improve their practices.
The Environment Agency has started to treat serious
soil runoff as point source pollution and is beginning to
enforce remediation and improved practice as with any
pollution incident.
We need upland and floodplain wetland restoration, working
hand in hand with education and enforcement to reduce
topsoil in rivers and to enable rivers to naturally redistribute
what remains in watercourses back on to the land.
2
.
Planning - river and wetland creation and restoration
in urban areas to create attractive and user-friendly green-
spaces adds huge economic value to an area.
•
The houses within walking distance of the River
Quaggy restoration in South London increased in
value by 7% over those further away in the 3 years
following the scheme.
•
The average cost of a 3 bed semi in this area today
is £450K and there are over 700 properties within
walking distance – equating to approximately £20M
of added property value.
•
Multiply this up across all such projects and you
don’t need to be a rocket scientist to see how such
restoration adds value to private assets in urban areas
•
This is in addition to all the well-known, but more
difficult to quantify, health and wellbeing-related
economic benefits of such projects resulting from
increased numbers of visitors, increased time spent in
the parks, increased distances walked to get there.
Money talks and so we need to develop more and better
evidence and awareness of wetland economics in this
country to drive a step change in engagement from these
key sectors.
Left to right: Professor Chris Spray, Chair; Chris Uttley, National
Resources Wales; Alastair Driver, Environment Agency; Lisa
Webb, RSPB Scotland, Professor Chris Baines
In dealing with these sectors we need to major on the economic benefits of
sustainable farming and development.
