The Bioregional Commons Fund
Rewarding the farmers who bring the River Avon back to life.
The idea
An unconditional income for farmers across the River Avon catchment, so they can farm in ways that let the river and the land recover.
Healthy water and healthy food go together. Yet the farmers best placed to restore the Avon are often the least financially secure. The Fund sets out to change that, rewarding river-friendly farming with a stable income and a shared fund built to last.
Developed by We Are Avon and Equal Right, the Fund is at concept stage, with planning support from The National Lottery Community Fund’s Awards for All. We are designing it this year with farmers and communities, so your input can help shape it.
Why it is needed
Protecting nature is getting harder for farmers
- Squeezed incomes. Shifting policy, lost subsidies, climate shocks and volatile markets leave many farms under real financial stress.
- Support that misses. Current funding rewards output over nature, and often bypasses the smaller farms that need it most.
- A river under pressure. Farming is the biggest single source of river pollution, and the Avon is among the most stressed rivers in the country.
Why a basic income
Security first
The simplest way to help people protect nature is to give them a stable, unconditional income.
- Removes the fear that makes changing how you farm feel too risky.
- Frees farmers to invest in regenerative, river-friendly practices and to diversify.
- Built to last, avoiding the cliff-edge of short-term grants.
What the Fund is working towards
A thriving catchment, from source to sea
A living catchment
A map of the whole River Avon catchment, cared for as one connected landscape.
Cleaner water
A healthier river, as pollution falls and life returns to the water.
Farming with nature
A more symbiotic relationship between farm and land, where working with nature pays.
How the Fund works
A commons that pays nature’s stewards
A shared fund that keeps supporting farmers year after year, not just once.
- Seeded by grants, philanthropy and public funding.
- Invested ethically, so the returns keep the payments flowing over time.
- Shared, so as the river recovers, the wealth it creates flows back to the farmers who made it happen.
It links naturally to the wider work of We Are Avon, from farm cluster groups to the emerging Food Hub, and is designed to spread to other catchments in time.
Have your say
Join our workshops later this year
This Fund will be shaped by the people it is for. Later this year we are running workshops with farmers, growers and communities across the catchment. If you are in the River Avon catchment, come and help design it.
RSVP (coming soon!)Dig deeper
Read the full concept note
The complete outline of the idea, the mechanism and the thinking behind it.
Document not showing? Open the concept note (PDF)
Help us shape the Fund
We are still in the planning phase, and this is exactly the moment to get involved. We are very happy to speak with farmers, growers, funders, delivery partners and anyone else interested in influencing the design of the project.
Get in touch, or read the full concept note to find out more.
Get in touch Read the concept noteDeveloped by a bioregional partnership
Our steering group
Made possible thanks to support from
