Frequently asked questions

How can the project help to protect us from climate change?

As our climate warms, flooding will become more frequent. Some areas of the Great Fen Project will be used to store floodwater to reduce the risk of flooding for surrounding farmland and communities. The Great Fen Project will also stop 350,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide from being released every year into the atmosphere from the bare peat soils. Climate change will affect wildlife too. The project will better enable species to adapt to future changes.

Will the scheme halt development in the area?

As the land we are interested in is at or below sea level, there is very little development. Most buildings are found on tiny patches of land that sit at or above sea level. Certainly the area wouldn't be a candidate for housing developments or similar projects.

The Great Fen is about restoring a landscape, and in that landscape people would have lived and worked. Therefore we expect people to live and work in the area in the future.

Will foundations of homes be affected?

Properly built buildings in the Fens are constructed in such a way that peat shrinkage does not affect the foundations. Typically this is done by piling through the peat to the clay beneath. Because of this changing the hydrology in the Great Fen area will not have a significant impact on the buildings there. To check this, the project partners will be commissioning a civil engineering study to look more at this issue.

Will the land be lost to agriculture?

Once the project has control of farmland it will begin the process of conversion to wetland habitats. Eventually arable cultivation of crops will stop. Some agricultural practices will be used to manage the Great Fen, including grazing and hay cutting. If the worst was to happen and the UK had to drastically increase the amount of land in cultivation, then the vast majority, if not all, of the Great Fen could be returned to arable, as all that would be required is more pumping and then ploughing. Indeed, the project will conserve current peat resources whilst arable farming depletes them.

Are you taking farmland out of production?

The arable land in the Great Fen Project area (approx 3200 hectares) constitutes just 0.019% of the agricultural land in Britain. To put this into context there is nearly a quarter of a million hectares of non-set aside land in the UK growing crops for non-food uses. The Great Fen Project will itself be a low-intensity food producer - with beef from grazing cattle. It will also be providing other products, such as reed for thatching and power generation as well as hay for the agricultural sector.

The project will preserve peat levels, which are shrinking elsewhere in the Fens, and will therefore secure soil should, in the unlikely event, it be needed for intensive arable food production in the future. Peat will continue to be lost in other parts of the Fens, ultimately reducing the quality and versatility of the soil.

The Great Fen Project will be used for floodwater storage, which will make a strategically vital contribution to the security of food production in the region by protecting surrounding land from flooding.

Will there be an increase in flooding risk?

This project would not get off the ground if it raised the risk of flooding in the fens and beyond. Indeed, the project may increase flood storage and therefore further safeguard land and property.

Woodwalton Fen has a barrier bank around it and is used to store floodwater at times of high flow in the Middle Level System. This is causing problems for the reserve and, because the site is protected at a European level, these problems need to be addressed. A solution would be the creation of an alternative flood storage area within the Great Fen. This would have to be of at least equal volume to the current provision, but could hold even more water, further safeguarding the area.

The great floods that tragically affected the fens in the past were caused by breaches in the main drains. The damage was widespread because these drains sit well above the level of the land. The Great Fen Project will not affect these watercourses.

Will higher water levels affect the railway?

This is something we are currently looking in to. Negative affects on the railway will not be allowed and so we are studying the likely impacts of the project on it. We expect that any negative effects can be mitigated for.

Is there a threat from Malaria?

Malaria is a serious disease that occurs where a wide variety of factors work together to enable the disease to spread. It is limited mainly to tropical regions but some have questioned whether global warming will enable malaria to spread to temperate regions, including Europe. The factors required for Malaria are as follows:

The presence of the malaria parasite
A carrier of the disease - certain species of mosquitoes
Habitats for the mosquitoes to breed
Suitable temperatures for the mosquitoes and the malaria parasite

First of all it should be noted that conditions for malaria in the fens have always existed, and still exist, yet Malaria has long since disappeared. This is due to a number of reasons:

Changes in lifestyle. One of the main carriers of malaria in the fens was the Anopheles maculipennis group. This group of mosquitoes has to survive winter in the adult form. When malaria existed people and stock lived in very close proximity and this enabled the mosquito to move between humans and animals and feed enough to get through winter. Now there is much less livestock in the Fens and these are kept separate from humans. Obviously, the more wetlands (of certain types), the more mosquitoes there will be. The Great Fen Project will be creating a variety of wetlands and some of these will enable the mosquitoes to breed. However, these habitats already exist in the fens in general and in the project area. Overall the increase mosquito population relative to current levels is unlikely to be significant.

Mosquito survival. In temperate regions such as the UK, mosquitoes feed roughly once every three weeks. Survival of the mosquito for this length of time is not guaranteed. The malaria parasite has also to have matured enough to infect the next person. This is not guaranteed. Furthermore, winter freezing kills off many mosquitoes and eggs, preventing a sustained outbreak of malaria. There are some 2000 cases of malaria in the UK each year. All but about 60 of these people contract the disease whilst in a foreign country. These cases are typically found in areas of the country were there is a large population of people from tropical regions. The remaining 60 people are often found near airports and were probably affected by mosquitoes that arrived in the country by plane.

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