Support for the Landscape Recovery project on the Waveney and Little Ouse
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Daniel Zeichner MP
Minister for Food Security and Rural Affairs
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Seacole Building
2 Marsham Street
London
SW1P 4DFOur Ref: AR01549
26 February 2025
Dear Minister,
Re: Support for the Landscape Recovery project on the Waveney and Little Ouse
Following a visit to the Waveney and Little Ouse Recovery Project in my Waveney Valley constituency, I am writing to express my support of the project. I understand that you have also met with Suffolk Wildlife in the project area and heard from them directly about the great potential of the approach they are taking here. I hope you will agree it is vital Defra maintains its support for this and similar projects that offer the innovative solutions we need in the face of the societal challenges of climate change and the nature crisis. I know that Suffolk Wildlife Trust would be happy to host future visits by Defra Ministers as they look to secure Defra’s commitment to take the project forward, and I would be very pleased to help facilitate in any way I can.
Through the Waveney and Little Ouse Recovery project, Suffolk Wildlife Trust is working with the Environment Agency and local farmers and landowners in the catchment of the Waveney and Little Ouse headwaters to develop a sustainable financial model to pay for the delivery of vital Nature Based Solutions to the challenges of climate change and biodiversity loss.
By restoring biodiversity, ecological connectivity, and resilient ecosystems at a landscape scale, the project would deliver a range of benefits to local communities and businesses, as well as contributing to wider net zero and nature recovery ambitions. Defra’s support for the initial phase of the project, funded through the Landscape Recovery pilot programme, has enabled Suffolk Wildlife Trust and their project partners to take a rigorous evidence-based approach to quantifying and valuing these societal benefits in the form of ecosystem services that can be marketed and sold to fund their delivery.
The Waveney and Little Ouse Recovery Project has capacity to protect the market towns of Diss and Bungay in the Waveney Valley constituency as well as larger nearby towns such as Beccles and Thetford which are also vulnerable to flooding. The financial cost savings would be substantial as would be the benefit to local residents whose homes were kept safe from flooding.
As the MP for Waveney Valley, I wish to support the scheme and the benefits this project could provide to local people, businesses, and the environment in my constituency; but I also recognise its wider potential as a template for how private investors can help the UK to achieve its net zero and nature recovery targets and mitigate the future costs of climate change and biodiversity loss by supplementing public funding for environmental delivery.
Suffolk Wildlife Trust estimates the project’s proposed habitat and ecosystem restoration, and land-use change could deliver:266,803 tonnes of CO2 removed from the atmosphere over 50 years
More than 5,000 Biodiversity Units[1]
9,969kg reduction in phosphorous inputs to land
450,948m3 additional flood water storage capacity
204,286m3 reduction in water run-off into local rivers
The project will soon be reaching the end of its development phase and seeking an extension of Defra’s support to enable it to move into the delivery phase. While the expectation is that income from the sale of ecosystem services will pay for delivery in the long-term, there is a need for upfront investment to cover the capital and ongoing maintenance costs of restoration and land-use change while the market for ecosystem services matures, and to set up the legal business structures needed to bring these ecosystem services to market. In order for this and other landscape recovery schemes to have the positive impacts that they should, it is necessary to provide clarity and reassurance to businesses and landowners who might wish to participate in such a project. Landowners need a guarantee of consistent future payments and businesses need to understand what future sustainability requirements are going to be. Furthermore, licenses and permits need to fit the scale of the landscape change instead of being suitable only for individual sites and small projects.
Suffolk Wildlife Trust have explained that private investment is being sought to match any investment by Defra, and that future income from sale of the ecosystem services would be used to defray the investment in ongoing maintenance costs – providing added value for money to the public purse and a return on Defra’s initial investment that would demonstrate the value of Landscape Recovery.
The Landscape Recovery Scheme has the potential to reverse biodiversity declines, support net zero, improve the health of rivers, protect people’s homes and businesses from flooding, and increase the availability of nature and its many benefits for people. Consequently, this and similar projects can help the Government deliver on its commitments in those areas.
I would only add, and am sure you agree, that fantastic nature recovery and carbon sequestration projects like this must be in addition to and not instead of the wider drive away from fossil fuels and to decarbonise the energy system and wider economy.
I am impressed by the Waveney and Little Ouse Recovery Project and consider that there is a need for similar schemes across the country. Similar projects should restore and enhance our natural environment, helping to mitigate the impacts of our changing climate and to adapt to it.
I hope that DEFRA will support this and other nature recovery projects by providing adequate funding, including to cover the setting up of the scheme. I am certain that the project offers good value for money and will also provide many additional benefits and would be grateful if you could confirm Defra’s intention to provide the next phase of funding requested by the project.
Yours,
Adrian Ramsay MP
Member of Parliament for Waveney Valley[1] Measured using Defra Biodiversity Metric v.3.1
