WRAP Wetland Restoration – Assuring Permanence
The main environmental problem addressed through the WRAP project is the supply of clean and plentiful water. The River Camel SAC Site Improvement Plan highlights that the river Camel suffers from Phosphate loading and Environment Agency data shows 8 of the 17 waterbodies do not achieve Good Ecological Status. The project address the goals of the 25YEP by delivering strategic and privately funded permanent nature based solutions to not only remove direct pollutant loading by the river (by taking land out of production) but also buffering both neighbouring land and upstream pollutants. The main objective of the project is to provide a physical example of a strategic permanent wetland restoration site allowing Phosphate Credits to be demonstrably created and sold to facilitate planning.
Project Milestones:
- Objective 1 review of 5 sites and specification of tender for Objective 2.
- Procurement of legal services to review legal tools.
- Agreement on legal options to secure permanence with buyer and seller.
- Prediction of benefits from wetland restoration.
- Creation of at least 1 wetland restoration site and phosphate credit.
The project shall need to work with project partners and stakeholders including Cornwall Council, Natural England, landowners and farmers, SWW and legal teams in order to successfully deliver the project, as they will need to contribute access, time and potentially sign off on the design and phosphate value of interventions. There are some similar scenarios across the regions of the UK where NGO’s and local authorities are looking into permeance issues around nutrient neutrality, so there shall be other sources of information and experience available.
Project Aim
To explore the legal tools for securing permanence, such as covenants, easements, rights and 106 agreements, with landowners on the river Camel to restore and conserve areas of wetland and riparian habitat.
To open up strategic phosphate credits that meet the needs of Natural England, Planners, Developers and Farmers to deliver direct and indirect phosphate reduction, habitat connectivity, sediment retention, base flow, flood attenuation and carbon sequestration.
Project partners
Developers Farmers
Solicitors
Funding model
The WRAP project shall generate revenue from the direct Phosphate reduction from land use change, which has already been shown to work within the UK through the purchase of blocks of agricultural land, purchase of whole farms or developers agreeing to include in their proposals fallowing of their own land. Phosphate credits are easily assessed by assigning a starting condition for a known area of land and a target condition for the same land. The on-line Phosphate calculator returns a KgP/yr figure which, as long as Natural England are happy with the way it is secured to assure both permanence and management, will permit development. The WRAP project would use the same methodology to assess the direct benefits, albeit with a different form of assuring permanence, but unlike simple land fallowing, strategic wetland creation can be deployed in places where there is considerable in-direct phosphate reductions alongside biodiversity credits, this should avoid the risk of un-strategic land purchasing
Future Investment Potential
Tangible environmental outcomes shall be seen through P mitigation schemes that provide multiple benefits in the long term such as riparian buffer zones and restoration of wetland areas. These shall not only provide P off-setting but also help to slow the flow, improve water quality, create additional habitat and provide climate change adaption pathways. The project address the goals of the 25YEP by delivering strategic and privately funded permanent nature based solutions to not only remove direct pollutant loading by the river (by taking land out of production) but also buffering both neighbouring land and upstream pollutants.
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