Restoring Our Fens as Flood and Climate Defenses: Have Your Say

The misty green fenlands are sinking, as loss and damage due to flooding is increasing. A century and a half of drainage and questionable water management has left much of Cambridgeshire below sea level, held up only by pumps and ageing banks — and that same drainage is destroying the very peat this rare natural ecosystem and its peoples depend on.

Mayor Maria Cleminson with Cllr Dr Antoinette Nestor, Cllr Nico Cordonier Gehring and Prof Marie-Claire Cordonier Segger at the Cambridge Zero Community Day “Fenlands Restoration for Flood Defences” stall, July 2026.

Our Fenlands Restoration for Flood Defences project, part of GYC-SLS Cllr Nico Cordonier Gehring’s UWC Atlantic Systems Transformation Pathway intervention, is exploring how nature-based solutions like re-wetted fenlands can work alongside other flood defences. They are advocating for green not just grey infrastructure, so that our precious local wetlands and waterways can foster rather than frustrate sustainable water systems governance (SDG 6), promote climate change mitigation, adaptation and resilience (SDG 13) and protect critical habitat for biodiverse species (SDG 15).

We’ve spent the past months consulting scientists, community groups and drainage boards, creating new educational materials and a homepage, running workshops in local rural and urban schools to pilot the materials, editing a Heron Habitat Helpers Handbook for local children and families and a special SDG 6 clean water issue of our Harmony youth online journal, and speaking up for future generations in local and global water and wetlands events. We’ve also advocated for the rights of the River Cam, in a special community festival on 21 June 2026, and celebrated the Cambridge City Council’s recent historic resolution to recognise the river’s rights.

Re-wetted fenlands, part of the Fenlands Restoration for Flood Defences project, Cambridgeshire, July 2026

We’re preparing a flyer, declaration and petition that lays out the case, the trade-offs, and what’s actually at stake for the people and nature who live here in the fenlands, urging our policy leaders to act. The Mayor of Cambridge Hon Maria Cleminson and Cllr Dr Antoinette Nestor have even signed our petition!

The GYC Fenlands petition stall with the flyer and petition laid out for signing.

Now we want to hear from you. Join us on Wednesday 22 July at the David Attenborough Building for a community consultation — a 10am session for young people covering the presentation, our new educational materials and our Habitat Helpers Handbook, and a 1pm intergenerational roundtable open to hear everyone’s insights on the youth declaration and youth/community recommendations, and to identify next steps to convince decision-makers on all levels.

Download the invitation flyer and petition, add your name now at c.org/zFbT9BVbtz, and also share the opportunity to be a voice for future generations with others!