Restoration of river habitats by restoring physical habitats offers significant opportunities for improvements to biodiversity. To date in the UK and Republic of Ireland (RoI) there have been many different examples and types of restoration work undertaken. Despite this progress there remain issues relating to the quality of the evidence base for restoration, its implementation and its promotion as a viable strategy to improve river biodiversity, ecosystem status and maintain the key services that we rely on.
To help promote river restoration throughout the UK and RoI, a three-phase project is being carried out with the support of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) National Committee UK (NCUK). Phase 1 reviewed the literature on river restoration (Ecus Ltd., in press). As part of the second phase of the project, a workshop featuring the combined expertise of specialists in river restoration was held. The findings from the Phase 1 report and the workshop will feed into an accessible report that will review the state of river restoration and its role in supporting biodiversity and ecosystem services and make recommendations for its future implementation.