PENNON WATER CHAMPIONS PROGRAMME

Boost to wetland conservation

Wetlands and wetland species conservation have received a tremendous and much-needed boost locally, regionally and nationally thanks to two major funding packages.

Firstly, in June it was announced that over a million pounds would be made available to The Wildlife Trusts by Water UK (the water industry's trade association), ten water and sewerage companies (including South West Water) and the Environment Agency. This will be used nationwide to implement the UK Biodiversity Action Plan for Otters.

September 1998 also saw the launch of the Pennon Water Champions Programme, through which Haul Waste and South West Water (subsidiaries of the Pennon Group) will provide over £300,000 to support the Devon and Cornwall Wildlife Trusts' wide-ranging work to conserve aquatic wildlife - the biggest single corporate sponsorship ever received by the two South-West Trusts.

This is an exciting, important and timely development. The recent biodiversity audit for Cornwall highlighted wetlands and wetland species as the most threatened and vulnerable, and recently published biodiversity action plans set out a lengthy list of essential actions to remedy this. The combination of these two funding packages will provide the Cornwall and Devon Wildlife Trusts with the much-needed resources to tackle this work, improving the region's aquatic environment for the benefit of both wildlife and people.

In Cornwall we will utilise this support in several key areas. Firstly we will be able to step up our work to enhance key habitats, species and public access on all our nature reserves associated with the aquatic environment. At the same time we will also extend our advisory service to target key wetland sites, encouraging sympathetic management and community appreciation.

Secondly we will establish an otters and rivers project in close association with the Environment Agency. This will enable us to play a major role in the UK Otter Recovery Programme, which promotes positive land and river management and encourages community involvement in the maintenance and creation of vital wildlife habitats and conservation areas along river corridors.

So how has this come about? The first factor is the growing level of environmental awareness and responsibility in the water industry as a whole. The second element is the UK Government's first green tax - the Landfill Tax.

This is imposed on waste operators for every tonne of waste deposited at landfill sites. However, a key feature is that landfill operators who choose to make a charitable donation to an environmental body, like the Cornwall Wildlife Trust, can stipulate that nine times the amount of their landfill tax liability can go to that environmental body instead of Customs and Excise.

Hence the new Water Champions fund is based on a core of Landfill Tax credits from Haul Waste, the UK's largest landfill operator. Similarly, the million pounds available nationally includes a reasonable proportion of Landfill Tax credits from Biffa, a subsidiary of Severn Trent Water.

The Trust's use of Landfill Tax revenue is overseen by an independent governing body, ENTRUST, which ensures that money is spent prudently and in line with the Landfill Tax legislation. In so doing it makes certain that real environmental benefits are generated for local communities.

Trevor Edwards