In the UK, farmers are combatting flooding by returning areas of their farms to a more natural state, and seeing the benefits not only in wildlife returning but in flood mitigation.
James Robinson, an intergenerational farmer from Cumbria in the northwest, has worked together with the Ullswater Catchment Management CIC to turn a number of areas of his farm into wetland havens where birds and invertebrates have come back in phenomenal numbers.
“People seem to like this model,” said Danny Teasdale, the CEO of Ullswater Catchment Management, in a long, on-site interview conducted by DEFRA.
“And then farmers talk and then someone else will get in touch. We are growing. We’ve been able to employ local contractors, and any money that comes into the CIC goes locally as well,” he said.