Biodiversity means ‘variety of life’ and encompasses all species and their habitats. Yorkshire Water interacts with the natural world in all aspects of our business, from abstraction and raw water treatment, through to waste water collection, treatment, discharge and the associated construction and maintenance works. We recognise the potential impact our activities can have on the environment and work hard to minimise this, for example, by improving river water quality.

We are one of Yorkshire’s largest landowners, with in excess of 29,000 hectares of land in Yorkshire,  Much of this land lies within various designated areas; the Peak District National Park, the Yorkshire Dales and the North York Moors. In addition, we own 51 Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI’s), 17 nature reserves, and a number of Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

We are committed to conserving and enhancing biodiversity on our land and work in partnership with our stakeholders to pursue this goal, including Local Authorities, English Nature, National Park Authorities, National Trust, RSPB, Yorkshire Wildlife Trust and the Environment Agency.  Yorkshire Water’s Environment Advisory Panel, which consists of key regional biodiversity and conservation stakeholders, meets quarterly to discuss key environmental issues including biodiversity conservation.

In addition, environmental issues are considered as part of all major capital schemes. We look to identify ways to protect or improve the environment as part of these schemes, and where an opportunity is identified, the scheme is modified accordingly and a management plan put in place.

Creating a Biodiversity Action Plan
Yorkshire Water implemented a company biodiversity strategy in October 2004 and we are currently working with Scott Wilson Consultants and Leeds University to develop an integrated Biodiversity Action Plan, which will enable us to effectively prioritise our activities in this area.

Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI’s)
In December 2003, Yorkshire Water signed a memorandum of understanding with English Nature for the protection of SSSI’s on its land. We have pro-actively committed ourselves to ensuring 95% of our SSSI’s are in a favourable or recovering condition by 2010.

Through our partnership with English Nature, 23% of the 51 SSSIs on Yorkshire Water land are now in favourable condition.  A second phase of work has now begun, in collaboration with English Nature, to tackle further issues which are preventing our SSSIs from returning to favourable condition and help us meet our target of returning an additional 10% of SSSIs to favourable condition in 2005/06.

Yorkshire Red Kite Restoration Project
The red kite, a rare bird of prey, is soaring over the skies of Yorkshire once more, thanks to a successful partnership between Yorkshire Water, English Nature and the RSPB. Red kites were once widespread across the UK but became largely extinct in the late 1800s. Yorkshire Water jointly funding a groundbreaking project to re-establish a wild population of Red Kites in the region. The project has been a huge success, with around 70 fledglings being released to the wild by 2003 from a secret location on the Harewood Estate in Leeds. These birds between them have raised 69 young as a direct result of this programme.

This project is just one example of the work Yorkshire Water has undertaken, in partnership with key stakeholders, to promote biodiversity within the Yorkshire region.  A further example of this is the Lower Derwent Project.

View our Biodiversity Strategy