Project principles

Working in Partnership
This Joint Project capitalises on complementary skills and experience in South East Ireland's Slaney Valley and in Pembrokeshire, West Wales. Learning from one another and sharing skills and knowledge, we will achieve community-development benefits that would otherwise be unaffordable and unattainable. The targets we have set - environmental, social and economic – are inseparable. By achieving the environmental improvement targets and maintaining those gains via a community culture of good stewardship, the improved recreational and educational opportunities we seek will be sustainable. Similarly, the economic gains and the contribution to improved health and well being are an integrated set of outcomes to be achieved and maintained by the community. Our aims and objectives are therefore expressed not in terms of ‘what we will do’ but in terms of ‘what we will achieve’.

Capitalising on the Common Ground
We will establish in both Regions self-sustaining Rivers Trusts, resourced largely by volunteer effort and drawing upon the pooled experience and learning resources of the Association of River Trusts movement. The Trusts will provide added value to communities in the two cross-border Regions via environmental monitoring and management expertise, volunteer training and development, educational resources, and guidance on best-practice land use that is proven and effective in restoring and protecting river environments and fish stocks.

Recognising Uniqueness
The environmental objectives, which have sustainability and community ownership as core values, recognise the uniqueness of the natural environments of the two Regions. We will foster an inclusive community commitment to maintain, protect and improve river environments in West Wales and in South East Ireland so that communities in the two Regions work together to grow their capability, each helping the other to compete in national and international tourism markets, exploiting the potential for community-led two-centre ‘green’ tourism development.

Joint Project Aims and Objectives

The aims of this Joint Project are:

• To develop the capacity of communities in South East Ireland and West Wales to maintain the habitats of rivers, lakes and wetlands and so safeguard their contribution to improved health, well-being and outdoor recreation, as well as environmental education and the rural employment that depends upon these assets  

• To extend and promote opportunities to enjoy healthy outdoors recreation and environmental education that rivers can provide, and to ensure that these opportunities are available to all men and women, including minority groups, young, disabled and disadvantaged people

• To set up a community capacity to promote, market and continuously develop innovative ICT-based systems that support sustainable angling tourism and other forms of ‘green' tourism in order to increase rural employment via an extended tourism season

•   To secure sustainable improvements in water quality and riparian habitats via a community-led programme of improved agricultural practice, seeking agri-environment investment for the benefit of the broader rural economy

• To promote measures that reduce the exploitation of fish stocks, enabling fisheries to recover and provide the world-class angling experience necessary for economic sustainability, thereby underpinning the increased employment potential resulting from habitat restoration and protection

• To establish the monitoring of environmental, social and economic development achievements as a community capability, supported by Rivers Trust expertise, so that the benefits of this and other related project investments can be sustained and enhanced via community commitment to continuous improvement

Objectives

1.      Developing Community Capacity via the Rivers Trust Network
To develop and establish, via self-sustaining Rivers Trusts in both cross-border Regions, networks for the exchange of information, expertise and experience between the partners in Ireland and the partners in West Wales, so that greater environmental, social, and economic benefits accrue from investments in river habitats and the recreational and educational opportunities they provide.

2.      Broadening Community Commitment and Access to the River Environment
To provide education, training and development opportunities that will foster in both cross-border Regions an inclusive interest in and concern for the protection of rivers and streams; and to provide interpreted access points suitable for everyone in the community, including hard-to-reach and disadvantaged groups and individuals.

3.      Environmental Improvements via Agricultural Best Practice
To promote sustainable management of watercourses through adoption of best-practice farming techniques based on training and guidance developed by The Westcountry Rivers Trust and the Environment Agency, so that the wider community in both cross-border Regions, as well as farmers and farm workers, will benefit socially and economically from improvements in river quality

4.      Conservation and Enhancement of Fish Stocks
To secure community support for actions to reduce exploitation and other pressures on fish stocks, particularly those stocks near or below their minimum conservation limit, thereby maximising the benefits from habitat improvement works and from easing the access to spawning and nursery areas by removing or bypassing obstructions.

5.      Developing and Marketing of Angling Tourism Opportunities
To use ICT-based systems for promoting and marketing angling holidays and other environmentally sustainable outdoors pursuits in the two cross-border Regions that are accessible to all sectors of the local community and to visitors to West Wales and South East Ireland.

6.      Building Capacity and Commitment of Communities to Protecting their Rivers
Via Rivers Trusts to educate and influence the actions of community groups in both cross-border Regions so that they value and protect their local rivers for their environmental and conservation value as well as the recreational and economic benefits that they provide; and to train volunteers from their communities to monitor the state of rivers so that they can identify early signs of threats to the natural environment when action to avert or minimise damage is most cost effective.