Revival Partnership Plan of Don river - Doncaster

The Revival Partnership Plan of Don river is a community-based agreement in Doncaster, United Kingdom that aims to maximize the natural value of the surrounding environment of the Don River. The community-agreement is a committed partnership delivering improvements for wildlife and people in the Don River catchment. The plan arose out of consultations that were conducted as a society-led initiative between various community organizations and local authorities (e.g., National Working Group of Catchment-based Approach, Doncaster Council, Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, etc.) to tackle Don's river restoration efforts. The final agreement aims to improve physical access to green space, develop nature tourism, empower communities to use local natural resources, create and restore high-quality habitats, and improve ecological and fishery status. The agreement is part of the national catchment-based approach, an inclusive, civil society-led initiative that works in partnership with government, local authorities, water companies, and businesses to maximize the natural value of the surrounding environment. The agreement provides an illustrative framework to support the delivery of critical local and national key strategies due to its integrated and joined-up approaches to safeguard ecosystem services and restore degraded ecosystems (e.g. Don Catchment Flood Management Plan, Doncaster Green Infrastructure Strategy, etc.). In addition, the Don Catchment Rivers Trust was established as a charitable trust to coordinate the joint actions on the catchment. The community-based agreement in Doncaster covered the catchment boundaries of the Don, Dearne, and Rother rivers, which was identified as a pilot area to develop the national partnership-driven catchment action plan.

Overview

Type of instrument:

Agreement-based or cooperative instrument›Community-based agreement with the support of the government

Challenges addressed

Green space management (e.g. accessibility)
Watershed restoration/water quality
Nature appropriation / stewardship
Human health, comfort and well-being

Consideration of nature-based solutions:

The agreement promotes multi-functional solutions to deliver an integrated network of high-quality green spaces, habitats, and landscapes across the catchments. The instrument also promotes the creation of multi-purpose spaces to achieve both environmental restoration and improves citizens' quality of life and creates corridors using green infrastructure (e.g., green routes, green spaces, planting trees & woodlands).

Targeted (peri-)urban areas:

Parks and (semi)natural urban green areas

Green areas for water management

Urban green space connected to grey infrastructure

Good practice characteristics:

Support multifunctional NBS

Sustainable in the long-term

Potential to be replicated / upscaled

Innovative

Inclusivity

Governance

Non-governmental actor(s)

Initiating body:

Citizens or community groups / NGOs

Details about how the instrument was designed:

The design of the catchment-based approach in Doncaster came as a recommendation from the South Yorkshire consultation meetings in 2004 and 2005. The consultations were conducted as a society-led initiative between various community organizations and local authorities (e.g., National Working Group of Catchment-based Approach, Doncaster Council, Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, etc.) to tackle Don's river restoration efforts. As a result, in 2008, the initiative established Don Catchment Rivers Trust as a charitable trust to coordinate the partnership-joint actions. Later, the stakeholders agreed on the partnership priorities and vision, 1) managing land sustainably, 2) recovering nature, 3) improving health and wellbeing, and 4) reducing pollution and waste on the catchment. The working group fixed the geographical limits of operation to the catchments of the Rivers Don, Dearne, and Rother based on local necessities assessment.

Targeted actors:

Public sector institution (e.g. school or hospital)

Private: household, real estate developer, business , financial

Citizens or community groups (CBOs), NGOs

Details about the implementation:

The design and implementation stakeholders include: Don Catchment Rivers Trust as the primary coordinator, Environment Agency, Doncaster Council, Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, Yorkshire Water, Natural England, South Yorkshire Forest Partnership, Doncaster Naturalists, Canal & Rivers Trust, Forestry Commission, The River Stewardship Company and Network Rail. The community-based agreement implementation follows an iterative learning cycle with the following components: (1) generating and using data to develop an evidence-based catchment plan; (2) implementing catchment management interventions; (3) measuring outcomes, adjusting delivery, and improving the programs based on the evaluation. The Doncaster council worked closely with the partnership and financially support their projects with grants. The council also collaboratively defines the restoration leverage points that directed the projects under the instrument. Various schemes under the partnership - such as the NW Water Rangers scheme - encourage the public to engage in citizen science and collect evidence of poor water quality using easy-to-use test kits. In the national context, the partnership instrument is aligned with the National Planning Policy Framework and the Biodiversity 2020: A Strategy for England's Wildlife & Ecosystem Services (2011). In the sub-regional context, the instrument is integrated with the South Yorkshire Green Infrastructure Strategy – Creating & Improving Green Network (2011). In the local context, the cooperative instrument acts as a delivery framework for the Borough's core strategies - Doncaster (2011 – 2028). These local core strategies included: The local Development Framework, Doncaster Green Infrastructure Strategy (2014- 2028), and the Don Catchment Flood Management Plan (2010).

How did the government support the instrument?:

The community-based agreement in Doncaster is part of the Catchment-based approach network. The multi-agency partnerships are formed from a government policy framework that empowers local action to improve the water environment and deliver Water Framework Directive objectives. In the Doncaster case, the policy number CS17 in the Local Development Framework promotes integrated and joined-up approaches to safeguard ecosystem services, particularly implementing green corridors. The Doncaster Council and Sheffield Regional Council allocated funding resources for some projects under the catchment action plan. The partnership is aligned with key national, regional, and local strategies that aim to deliver integrated and joined-up approaches to safeguard ecosystem services, restore degraded ecosystems, and contribute to local climate change mitigation and adaptation measurements.

Financing

Sources of funding:

Public national budget

Public regional budget

Public local authority’s budget

Budget:

Unknown

Details about instrument financing:

The projects under the community-based agreement are being funded by various mechanisms, including at the national level from National Lottery Heritage Fund, funds from the Environment Agency, Green Recovery Challenge Fund, Woodland Grant Schemes, Environmental stewardship schemes, and Water Framework Directive Funding. In addition, funding comes from Yorkshire Water and the budget of Doncaster Council and the Sheffield Regional Council. While the overarching figures are not available, approximately € 16.8 million (£14 million) has been spent from 2012-2022 on improving fish passages within the Don catchment.

Monitoring, evaluation and impacts

Is a monitoring framework in place?:

Yes

The partnership instrument has set various monitoring programs and promoted the involvement of the public in monitoring action plan progress. For example, the adopted NW Water Rangers scheme encourages the public to engage in citizen science and collect evidence of poor water quality using easy-to-use test kits. The water quality results were streamed via open access dashboard. The Don Catchment Rivers Trust (DCRT) has also designed an underwater monitoring program for fish using GoPros and Atlantic Salmon recording programs.

Did an evaluation take place?:

Yes

The Don Catchment Rivers Trust (DCRT) responsible for implementing the cooperative instrument is part of the National Support Group of the Catchment Based Approach. This network offers vast evaluation support and expertise for the 100+ river catchments across England. These mechanisms include peer-to-peer learning, an Annual CaBA conference, an online discussion forum, periodical conferences, and the mentoring program used by all partnerships to share knowledge and build capacity and resilience by taking a sustainable evidence-based approach to evaluating progress and action plans. The DCRT also offers many citizens science programs for evaluation and periodic consultations, including research institutions such as the University of Sheffield and the University of York.

Achieved outcomes and impacts:

The community-based agreement created partnerships between NGOs, the National Environment Agency, regional governments, commissions, and organizations and resulted in the naturalization of the previously over-engineered river bank of the Don river. There are no overarching quantitative figures on green space creation. However, as an example, the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust’s project (Loving Your Local Limestone) implemented under the partnership served to improve and restore ten local limestone grassland sites through long-term conservation grazing and a shrubs control program. Another project was the Don Valley Way, which created a 30-mile green trail that stretched from Doncaster’s North Bridge to the outer edges of Sheffield, which acts as a green corridor was various green infrastructure utilization. Finally, in early 2019, Atlantic salmon were found in the Don river at the spawning grounds in Sheffield and were spotted for the first time since the species' disappearance 150 years ago as a result of the improved river habitat projects.

Success factors and lessons learned:

The community-based agreement has an innovative approach by enabling organizations from different sectors to unite and work under one shared vision to create a committed partnership delivering improvements for wildlife and people on the Don catchment. The intervention provided by the revival instrument is thus a change in the governance of natural areas in and around Doncaster that led to projects rather than being a specific project itself. In addition, the partnership instrument ensures long-term sustainability by aligning with key national and local strategies and action plans and having institutional support. The partnership instrument also promotes the use of scientific-evidence-based methodologies to reach better land management for having a multi-functional landscape. Finally, the monitoring and evaluation programs developed by the instrument embrace public involvement, the use of technology, and exchanges of learned experiences.

Sources and further information