The Floodplain Meadows Partnership brings together scientists and practitioners, developing understanding based on sound science of how to manage, restore and create species rich seasonally inundated floodplain grasslands and the multiple benefits they provide. The Partnership, created in 2007, is led by the Open University (OU) and supported by statutory and non-Government organisations.
Britain lost 97% of its flower-rich meadows during the last century, with meadows found on floodplains particularly hard hit by activities such as agricultural intensification and urban and industrial development. Alongside benefits such as helping to reduce flooding and to store carbon, floodplain meadows are home to a diverse range of flora and fauna. Although designated a priority habitat (under Annex 1 of the EU Habitats Directive) the remaining meadows are still at risk.
The partnership is committed to continued long-term monitoring to improve knowledge about plant community responses to environmental change, and to sharing findings with all those involved in floodplain meadows. Key partners include:
The Steering Group
The Floodplain Meadows Partnership is composed of a number of key partners who all have varying roles to play in the conservation and management of species-rich floodplain meadows and support the project through advice and finance. Steering Group members are:
- The Open University
- Natural England
- Environment Agency
- The Wildlife Trusts
- Centre for Ecology and Hydrology
- Field Studies Council
- The RSPB
- The National Trust
- People Need Nature
In 2020. with a grant awarded by Ecover ,
With Ecover’s support, the Floodplain Meadows Partnership team at the OU and partners Long Mead’s Thames Valley Wildflower Meadow Restoration Project and the Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust will focus on restoring a section of the Thames valley floodplain. Over the next three years, Long Mead’s Thames Valley Wildflower Meadow Restoration Project will actively work with local farmers to restore 50 hectares of this area to beautiful diverse meadows, creating a continuous wildflower corridor of connected habitats of international importance.
Soil samples collected from key meadow sites in the project area by the partners will be analysed at OU laboratories to build a picture of how carbon stores change over time in restored meadows. We hope to use this evidence to show that floodplain meadows are a more effective, reliable and longer-term carbon store than other habitats and should be recognised as being just as important as trees and peat as a nature-based solution.
In addition to providing a long-term store for carbon and space for flood water, floodplain meadows provide numerous other benefits for humans and wildlife alike.