Meet Tim Birch, River Action’s Policy and Advocacy Manager!

Q1. Tell us about yourself

I live in West Wales and love walking the Pembrokeshire Coastal path watching wildlife such as grey seals, choughs and dolphins which we are fortunate to have on our doorstep. I grew up in the Peak District and spent many happy hours as a child bird watching amongst the hills and dales of Derbyshire. I can still remember how excited I got when I saw my first Dipper and Kingfisher on our local river so my connection with rivers goes back a long way. I love watching live music, particularly Irish folk and classical music, and enjoy playing the piano when i can.

Q2. How did you become interested in river protection?

When I finished at the University of Sheffield a group of us became particularly concerned about the state of rivers in South Yorkshire – particularly the Don and the Rother. They were heavily polluted by industry and sewage discharges. We decided to look into what was going on. As we began to examine the pollution registers for these discharges it became clear to us that companies were regularly breaching their discharge licences and little was being done by the regulatory bodies – so not much has changed there !

We decided to make a short film about what we found out and we established a local rivers campaign group called the Clean Rivers Campaign. This rapidly got local and national coverage and had a big impact. I’ll never forget when we got a Radio 4 crew who came up to interview us on a small boat on the River Rother which was one of the most polluted rivers in the UK at the time.

Q3. You have over 30 years of expertise in advocacy, biodiversity policy, and environmental campaigning at some of the most impactful UK environmental charities such as Greenpeace UK and Greenpeace International, the RSPB and the Wildlife Trusts. What have you enjoyed most about this kind of work and what have been its biggest challenges? 

I have worked at both the local, national and international level during my career in the nature conservation and environmental sector. I  have worked around the world on some of the biggest environmental issues that we face such as tropical rainforest destruction of the Amazon and in Indonesia and toxic pollution of our oceans.

These campaigns have brought me face to face with appalling environmental destruction. However, what i have always found most rewarding, when faced with such destruction, is having the chance to work with such a diverse mix of people and cultures who all share the same values about the need to protect and restore our amazing planet. That gives you an incredible amount of hope and drive to continue and never give up.

Q4. Tell us more about your position as a trustee of Tir Natur (a rewilding NGO in Wales), and your passion for rewilding.

I recently was asked to join the board of Tir Natur and have been delighted to join the first Welsh rewilding organisation. Tir Natur was set up to bring rewilding to Wales and to look for opportunities to showcase rewilding at scale in Wales. Wales has been slow to get on board with rewilding and I see Tir Natur as vital to help address this. Rewilding brings exciting new opportunities to both protect and restore nature and to also support and sustain local communities.

I have visited many rewilding sites in the UK and overseas and I have been both astonished and inspired to see how quickly nature can recover if it is given the freedom and space to do so. Rewilding is critical if we want to address the nature crisis in the UK and in Wales. The time has come to help our rivers become wilder across the UK!

Q5. Tell us about your new position as River Action’s Policy and Advocacy Manager, What can we expect to see from your role in 2025?

I am absolutely delighted to be joining River Action. I have been so impressed at the huge positive impact River Action has had as it rescue’s Britain’s rivers. It is clear that there is massive public support to clean up and restore our rivers and River Action has played a key role in bringing the plight of Britain’s rivers to the attention of the public. My role will be to help increase the advocacy impact of River Action with politicians, regulators, local authorities and business not only in England but across the devolved nations starting with Wales.

I will be helping to ensure that the incredible work of local community groups fighting for their rivers makes a significant political impact. I will also be helping to continue to develop our policy work so that we can advocate for the most river friendly policies.

Q6. Finally, in your opinion, what is further needed/what needs to change to rescue Britain’s rivers?

We need a real sense of urgency to rescue our rivers. For too long our rivers have become forgotten backwaters – that is changing particularly because of the work of River Action but we need to do more and we need to act fast. We need to continue to increase public awareness about the plight of our rivers and put forward the solutions to the problems our rivers face at all levels. More communities taking more action on their local rivers is vital to help create the pressure for change.

We need to continue to expose polluting practices and hold those polluters to account. The people supposed to be protecting our rivers need to step up and when necessary enforce the law – far too many river polluters are getting away with damaging our rivers and this has to stop.

We need to bring the market into the frame and that means supermarkets who are selling products that pollute our rivers during their production – this needs to change and fast and supermarkets need to help bring about that change. Our rivers are the living arteries running the length and breadth of our country – its so inspiring to be part of a movement helping to breathe life back into our rivers.