UK criticised for failing to join UN-backed river restoration scheme

Environmental teams have criticised the UK authorities for not signing as much as a United Nations-backed river and wetland restoration challenge, regardless of many different nations becoming a member of the scheme.

On 23 March on the UN Water Conference in New York, nations from throughout the globe launched the Freshwater Challenge, which goals to revive 300,000 kilometres of rivers and 350 million hectares of wetlands by 2030. The challenge, which has been hailed as the biggest of its type in historical past, is being collectively led by Colombia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ecuador, Gabon, Mexico and Zambia. Canada, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Romania and the US have additionally all agreed to participate.

The scheme calls on world governments to decide to clear targets of their biodiversity methods to revive wholesome freshwater ecosystems. James Dalton on the International Union for Conservation of Nature says it’s “absolutely critical”. Freshwater biodiversity has declined by 80 per cent since 1970, he says.

“This initiative forces people to manage water as a habitat,” says Dalton. “Water is critically important for drinking but freshwater habitats also need to be taken seriously as environments that support insects, fish and provide a lot of carbon storage.”

But the UK has not joined the scheme, to the frustration of some environmental teams.

“The UK government must commit to more ambitious targets when it comes to water quality – the fact that they haven’t joined the UN Freshwater Challenge is yet another sign of shying away from improving the quality of our water,” says a spokesperson for the Marine Conservation Society. “Healthy seas are vital for people and the planet.”

“The lack of support for this scheme highlights the real lack of strategic approach from Westminister to tackle water quality and water use,” says a spokesperson for the RSPB.

“Freshwater ecosystems like lakes, rivers and wetlands are disappearing faster than any other ecosystem we measure,” says Lis Bernhardt on the UN Environment Programme, which is backing the scheme. She hopes that the Freshwater Challenge will drive nations to be extra particular about how they plan to guard these ecosystems. In the UK, this would come with rivers, peatbogs and saltmarshes.

“I think going into [the climate summit] COP28 at the end of this year, we’re going to see water conservation taken into the climate change conversation even stronger than it was at COP27,” she says.

The WWF, which can also be a part of the Freshwater Challenge, says it hopes extra nations be part of the initiative. “The only way to achieve real change in our degraded freshwater systems is a broad coalition of countries, organisations, private sector working together in close collaboration with communities,” a spokesperson says. “The launch was the start of building this coalition for freshwater restoration.”

New Scientist requested the UK’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs why the nation had not joined the scheme, nevertheless it didn’t reply the query immediately. “At [the biodiversity summit] COP15, the UK was at the forefront of efforts to secure an ambitious outcome to halt and reverse biodiversity loss by 2030 and protect 30 per cent of the world’s land and ocean by the same date, including the conservation and restoration of freshwater habitats,” says a spokesperson.