As a member of the National Estate for Nature (NEN), read our statement on the submission of our Plan for Nature.
Our Vital Connector for Nature and People Report
The Canal & River Trust is the largest canal charity, looking after a 2,000-mile (3219 km) long network of canals, towpaths and river navigations, plus docks, reservoirs and other historic structures and habitats in England and Wales.
As a member of the National Estate for Nature (NEN), the Trust supports the UK government-led initiative to drive large-scale nature recovery, meet statutory 30by30 biodiversity targets, and enhance environmental resilience. The Canal & River Trust also supports the UK Government’s commitment to the ‘access to nature’ goal within the Environmental Improvement Plan 2025.
The report has been underpinned by ecological mapping of the network to gain a better understanding of its ecological footprint, diversity of habitats and species, and their condition. The baseline work commenced during 2021/22 and was completed at the end of 2024, presenting the body of evidence on the ecological value of our network and the breadth of opportunities for contributing to nature recovery.
We have also developed a greater understanding of how climate change affects our canal network and its associated structures and habitats, and the steps that we need to take to manage those impacts now, and in the future, in response to challenges faced. This was published in our APR4 Climate Adaptation Report in December 2004.
Our Network’s Role as a ‘Vital Connector’
The UK faces a severe biodiversity crisis, characterised by significant species decline and habitat loss, and is one of the most nature-depleted countries globally. This is compounded by low levels of nature connectedness and high levels of wellbeing inequalities.
The canal network managed by the Canal & River Trust provides the opportunity to help address these three interconnected challenges. Furthermore, the wider landscape is fractured, disconnected, disjointed, and contains ecological voids so the canal network, as linear infrastructure, is uniquely positioned to serve as a ‘vital connector’, supporting nature by providing corridors of freshwater habitat, connecting isolated habitats and providing homes for wildlife and routes for their migration. This is a key point emphasised by ‘Recommendation 21’ of the 2010 Lawton Report and in a video by Dr. Tony Juniper CBE, Chair of Natural England.
Our Role in the Planning System
Over 96% of the land adjacent to our ageing network of canals and towpaths, rivers, reservoirs and docks is not in the control of the Trust, and this means that this interconnected and open system can be vulnerable to the impact of development activity undertaken by third parties. The Canal & River Trust’s role as a statutory consultee for third party planning applications under the planning system, and as a prescribed consultee for NSIPs under DCO regime, are critical in protecting the network from inappropriate development. These roles provide the opportunity to protect and enhance our network’s biodiversity, contribute to nature recovery, reduce the risk of flooding, and safeguard structural integrity and public safety.
Commitment – We will continue to commit to requesting and securing appropriate environmental and ecological enhancements through our statutory consultee roles in the planning system and the DCO regime.
Contributing to Local Nature Recovery Strategies (LNRSs)
The Canal & River Trust published and issued a technical guide on Local Nature Recovery Strategies to the 32 relevant Responsible Authorities in 2024 to help inform their LNRS process and site selection. This guide was also shared with 165 relevant Local Planning Authorities to ensure local planning policies recognise our network as being an integral and important part of the nation’s nature recovery network and to be a beneficiary of Biodiversity Net Gain. As a result, many parts of the network are now being recognised as ‘Areas that could Become Important for Biodiversity’.
Commitment - We will continue to commit to working in partnership with the relevant authorities responsible for the preparation and delivery of the Local Nature Recovery Strategies and for the preparation of statutory local plans.
Supporting the UK Government’s Commitment (EIP 2025)
The network is an important free and accessible blue-green space, with approximately 9 million people living within 10–15 minutes’ walk of one of our canals. Within this population, more than 53% of households (nearly 2 million) experience wellbeing inequalities (up to 63% in some areas). There is potential for even greater impact with nearly 30 million people (50% of the population), living within 5 miles of our canals, which attract 10.3 million visitors (average over a 2-week period) and 800 million individual visits annually.
Commitment – We will commit to promoting and encouraging the use of our network of canals and towpaths, providing a significant contribution to giving everyone access to blue-green space within 10-15 minutes of where they live, and will include the number of visitors and unique visits, as well as the % of towpaths being graded as in good condition, within the Annual Report and Accounts.
Working with Partners
As a charity we work with partners, funders, volunteers, and local communities to improve the environmental quality, biodiversity and biosecurity of the network. For example, ‘greening’ the canal corridors helped support Birmingham becoming the UK’s first official ‘Nature City’; winning the Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management (CIEEM) 2025 NGO Impact Award for Unlocking Biodiversity; securing and maintaining 741 miles of Green Flag awarded canals; and removing 1,300 bags of plastic waste and 1,500 tonnes of floating pennywort in 2024/25.
Commitment – We will commit to continuing our collaborative work with partners, funders, volunteers, and local communities, supporting and co-producing initiatives to improve the environmental quality, access, biodiversity and biosecurity of the network which we will publish within our Annual Impact Report.
