Who we are
We Are Avon is a place-based movement working to regenerate the landscapes, rivers and communities of the Avon catchment.
Across the world, people are recognising that the crises of climate change, biodiversity loss, water pollution and food insecurity are deeply interconnected. The health of our rivers reflects the health of our landscapes and the wellbeing of our communities.
The Avon river connects more than 550,000 acres of land, two cities and nineteen towns across a single watershed.
If the Avon flourishes, the entire region flourishes.
We Are Avon exists to catalyse this transformation.
We are bringing together river guardians, land stewards, farmers, growers, citizens, landowners, conservationists, artists, activists, organisations and local communities to restore the river valley, regenerate land and food systems and co-create a thriving bioregion rooted in care for place.
We are a registered charitable Community Benefit Society (CBS), we exist with a mission and asset lock guaranteed to benefit the human and more-than-human communities in the Avon catchment.
Our vision
Our vision is for a flourishing Avon bioregion.
A clean, living river flows through thriving ecosystems and abundant landscapes, nourishing resilient communities and regenerative food systems.
In this future:
- The River Avon runs clean and healthy.
- Abundant wildlife is returning to the valley.
- Farms produce nutritious food using regenerative and river-friendly methods.
- Communities steward the land and water commons together.
- Local food systems feed towns and cities.
- Cultural life celebrates the river and landscape.
The Avon becomes a living model of ecological regeneration and community resilience.
This vision is not simply environmental.
It is about rebuilding relationship between people and place.
The Avon is our valley, our home, our past and our future. If we can protect and regenerate these lands and waters together as a community of reciprocity then a beautiful future is possible for many generations to come. Healthy soil, food sovereignty, abundant wildlife and clean rivers can be our legacy.
Community-led action
There is a great power in community solutions rooted from the food on our plates and the land on our doorsteps. This is a grassroots place-based project that can complement and feed into the necessary global/systemic shifts.
Not everyone has great access to nature, but we all connect to food in some way and can create opportunities to connect to land we stand upon. From this reconnection sparks engagement, solutions action and collaborative transformation of the nature ‘crisis’ into active hope.
Regional Resilience
This project is rooted deeply in community need and directly responsive to this as it evolves with the context. We cannot tackle and address all needs in the old mechanistic way of problem-reaction-solution or linear thinking. The ‘threats’ to communities and people do not exist in isolation and neither do their solutions, but we can facilitate the underlying conditions whereby communities are more resilient to the challenges and injustices of this century.
For example we can meet the cost of living crisis better together through the sliding scale producer co-operative proposed in this project, and support those in need as the diverse challenges emerge. We Are Avon is defined as a project of community resilience, but not in a prescriptive, paternalistic or charitable way.
The fundamental premise of We Are Avon is instead the belief in the gifts and potential of humans as regenerators and active participators in life. A fundamental human need exists within the right to a healthy environment, bioregion and social context within which they can thrive. These enabling conditions can be cultivated through collaborative action starting with the land and our food systems, thus allowing for community and individual needs to be met within a flourishing biosphere.
