Climate-hit wetlands lay bare Britain’s biodiversity struggle

The BROADS NATIONAL PARKS, England, 26 April (Thomson Reuters Foundation). As tourists looked on in confusion and seagulls circled overhead, Duncan Holmes steered through thousands of dead salmon bobbing up at the surface of River Thurne, east England.

Holmes, 48, an engineer who retired and became a fishing instructor, went out on a day in September to photograph the extent of a mass fish death that has heightened concerns about declining biodiversity in The Broads National Park, as well as fragmented conservation efforts.

Local fishing groups estimated that hundreds, thousands of freshwater fish and insects were killed after high tides caused by onshore winds trapped in the inland and made worse by a long-term drought caused saltwater from North Sea to flood upriver.

Holmes, whose family lived in the area for generations, expressed “despair” at seeing the fish kill again and again.

“I don’t know how often I’ve seen this in my life,” said Holmes. He is a member The Broads Angling Services Group, a civic organization for anglers. The area is Britain’s biggest protected wetland, and a major inland river.

The Broads is prone to fish kills caused by toxic algae or abnormally high saltwater tides.

Local anglers, environmentalists, and officials claim that the killings are increasing each time. This is a sign of the intensifying threats facing the ecosystem as a result of climate change, sea level rises, and human activities from farming to building homes.

The United Nations has just signed a new agreement with Britain. Global Biodiversity Framework, also known as the 30-by-30 initiative, aims to protect 30% (or more) of land and oceans in the world by 2030.

Recently, it also set its own legally binding environmental targets. What happens in The Broads could be a good indicator of how well both goals are met, say experts.

The National Park, which covers Norfolk and Suffolk counties in Britain, is home to one quarter of the rarest plants and animals.

Holmes said the fish kill was emblematic of the disjointed, dysfunctional governance in the area. He and other citizens have said that this has hindered coordinated conservation efforts. They also say it risks undermining long-term sustainability.

Conservationists say that budget cuts have slowed down the collection of environmental data and the modelling of it.

The Environment Agency (EA), Britain, responded to the salwater surge in September by manually moving thousands fish into freshwater.

BASG, for example, has questioned the effectiveness of this method, given that it estimates 100,000 fish to have died in just the Thurne River alone. At least three other rivers also were affected.

A spokesperson from the EA didn’t respond to the question of whether the number of fish deaths has increased in the past few years, but did say that “climate change will likely cause severe saline intrusions to increase in frequency and magnitude”.

Conservationists and officials in The Broads are increasingly concerned about the impact of saltwater intrusion on entire food chains, from larvae and aquatic animals to birds and other species.

‘ENGINEERING IS NOT NATURE.
Around 2,000 years old, the eastern portion of The Broads consisted of saltwater marsh. This was formed by a large estuary and acted as a barrier between the sea environment and freshwater.

In the last few centuries, however people have dug thousands and thousands of kilometers of drainage ditches, and installed pumps, to dry out the land so that it can be used for farming and grazing. This has caused the land to sink and worsen floods.

Matthew Philpot, Area Manager for The Broads Internal Drainage Board, the agency that controls water levels in the land through the ditches, said the region was “not a natural landscape, but a landscape created by engineering.”

He said that the drainage ditches had created important habitats for freshwater biodiversity.

Holmes, of BASG, said that he wanted to remove the channels and pump to let the area “go back into a natural setting”.

He added, “Let the nature take its course to keep salt where it belongs and freshwater where it belongs.”

Some officials are in agreement.

Natural England, the government’s conservation advisor body, said that residents of eastern Broads could benefit from biodiversity and climate change adaptation by changing land use in order to allow for a more salty downriver flooding plain to develop.

Andrea Kelly, Environment Policy Advisor at the Broads Authority, which administers this national park, explained that drainage ditches themselves are important habitats for invertebrates, such as the Norfolk Hawker Dragonfly.

According to the BA’s 2011 assessment of species that were identified as priority conservation, 52% or more than 1,500 of them are vulnerable to any rise in water levels, and 63% “require completely freshwater conditions” for survival.

Kelly stated that a drought would cause ditches to dry out, which would be a “catastrophic” event for rare insects like the swallowtail butterfly and dragonfly.

Both scenarios could reverse the gains in biodiversity, according to the ecologist. His work focuses on rewetting sections of peatland that have been drained for centuries and released millions of tons carbon dioxide.

According to a recent Nature study, Britain has lost 75% of its wetland over the past 300 years.

Climate change is also affecting the ecosystem, with sea level rising projected and more severe droughts.

Southwood, who has lived in The Broads and worked there for over 45 years, said that he had seen the declining biodiversity of the region. He also knows that it will get worse.

He said: “We know that losses will occur, but it is difficult to predict the timeframe.”

“It will be difficult to achieve (30×30) targets long-term,” he said, adding that conservation targets are a sensitive subject for the public, as they can conflict with food production, employment and housing development.

CONSERVATION TOURISM AND AGRICULTURE?
The Broads, home to hundreds of thousands of residents – 6,000 of which live within the park’s boundary – has been the subject of fierce debate.

Tourism and agriculture, which each contribute billions in revenue to the country’s economy, are competing with efforts to advance environmental protection and adaptation to climate change.

Conservationists say that if plans to return the eastern Broads floodplain to its former state were to become reality, small farmers would need to be willing either to relocate or to adopt wetland farming techniques for different crops.

Local authorities plan to build tens and thousands of new homes on The Broads over the next few years. Southwood of Natural England said that land development is the largest factor in habitat loss and species loss in his career.

Southwood and Philpot, two officials who have been criticized for their lack of coordination between agencies to address problems ranging from flooding to land-use conflicts, said that the public’s complaints were valid.

They said that despite the slow progress, there was still progress.

In 2015, a multi-agency group was formed to manage and study future flood risks in The Broads. The Environment Agency works with local authorities and civic groups such as BASG to implement this plan.

The BA has also developed grants at the national level for farmers who are interested in converting to wetland agriculture and peatland re-creation. Conservationists claim that this would help achieve biodiversity goals.

Rob Wise is the environment adviser at the National Farmers’ Union Chapter in the area. He said that economics would ultimately drive such a transition and government payments must be “long-term” to encourage land usage change.

Paul Rice, the chairman of The Broads Society in a local civic environment organisation, said that failing to protect biodiversity could mean “the end of our lives, way of living, and livelihoods”.

“Our main industries, agriculture and tourism, will suffer massively if we don’t adapt and work with the nature.”