The River Guardians Summit was organised by Lawyers for Nature at an idyllic sheep farm in Berkshire. The gathering was convened to celebrate the groups and communities who care deeply for their local rivers, often with little recognition or resources and aimed to share their stories, challenges, and successes in protecting the waterways they love.
The intention of the event was to look at river guardianship as one of the core mechanisms for realising or enforcing legal rights for nature. Legal rights for nature give the natural environment a ‘voice’. River guardians undertake practical action and campaigning to protect and restore their rivers, uphold their rights, and speak for their river’s interests. This is the first step in achieving legal rights for nature.
The event also created an opportunity to champion the local communities who work tirelessly to care for the land, rivers and nature that they are connected with and love.
I attended and spoke at the River Guardians Summit and it was an unusual event and I thought I might not enjoy it, but I was wrong and I enjoyed it very much. The people there, from an array of River Action Groups, were really lovely and welcoming, and they are doing magnificent work to improve rivers in their local communities. They told the Summit about the ways that they are using to bring people and rivers together, and they described the events that they hold, the leaflets they have distributed and the monitoring that they carry out on their rivers. Together, they have delivered the most amazing amount of work and made their friends and neighbours aware of the problems affecting their rivers. They were quietly powerful and I hope to meet up with them again.
Do you have a River Action group near you? If you do, I recommend that you go and meet with them and see what they are up to; I can guarantee that you will be welcome and that you will be inspired and impressed.
Jo Bradley, Director of Operations, Stormwater Shepherds UK
