Our Impact
Thank you for supporting our work
We are the voice for freshwaters and are dedicated to understanding and protecting freshwater ecosystems. We are advocates for one of the most vulnerable ecosystems on the planet.
Welcome to our impact report for 2022 - 2023. You can read a snapshot here and download the full report below.
Our impact 2022 - 2023
We supported, co‑ordinated and trained over 800 volunteer citizen freshwater scientists throughout the UK.
Riverfly:
4,253 survey records uploaded to our database by volunteers
461 active citizen scientists
850 sites monitored across 355 rivers and 103 catchments
The Big Windermere Survey:
400 sampling sites
2,000 water quality samples
1,200 volunteer hours
150 regular citizen scientists
Freshwater species recovery:
45,000 pearl mussels being reared in our Species Recovery Centre
1,100 released into the River Irt, Cumbria boosting population by 400%
Our oldest broodstock mussel is circa 130 years old!
Advocacy and learning:
450 delegates from 27 countries, 511 submitted abstracts at the Symposium of European Freshwater Sciences organised by FBA
227 participants took part in our FBA training courses
Creation of FBA’s Early Career Network
Organisational resilience progress:
£48,000 operating surplus achieved
22% increase in funding
10 major collaborative programmes underway
Co-developing a Staff Wellbeing plan with colleagues
Net Zero & sustainability plan in development
Images of the release of Freshwater Pearl Mussels into the wild
“Moving forward into 2024, we remain as passionate and committed as ever. We will continue to deliver on the objectives in our growth plan and deliver action focused science, training and advocacy that works for freshwater ecosystems and people.”
Simon Johnson, FBA Executive Director
