Land restoration plan to boost nature-based flood solutions

THE National Trust and insurance giant Admiral have teamed up to boost flood prevention through nature-based solutions.

- REBRCCA SPEARE-COLE

The Migneint blanket bog

The organisations said they will work together on large-scale landscape restoration as a way to help tackle the growing threat of flooding.

The partnership, announced yesterday, will involve a £600,000 investment from Cardiff-based Admiral’s green fund initiative into nature-based solution projects in three upland areas - Eryri, the Holnicote Estate in Somerset and in the Lake District in Cumbria.

The National Trust teams will carry out a series of interventions in these areas to help the land absorb more water and slow water flow.

They also hope to boost declining wildlife, including curlews, dragonflies and the return of plant species such as the water-loving sphagnum moss that helps form new carbon-absorbing peat.

The Eryri project is currently under way, with the National Trust team working to restore the Migneint blanket bog - one of the country’s most precious and biodiverse upland habitats.