Investment Readiness Partnership

Investment Readiness Partnership
Anstruther harbour after Storm Babet


The Dreel Burn Investment Readiness Partnership (DBIRP), funded by the Facility for Investment Ready Nature in Scotland (FIRNS) grant scheme, is highly collaborative, with co-design between interested parties being key to our core values of transparency and integrity.

Understanding and reflecting the needs of all stakeholders is fundamental to our approach and is what we believe will be the key to its success.

Our FIRNS project will drive and facilitate investment in sustainable and productive landscapes that meet the needs of nature, people, and the economy, whilst realising the community vision of the Dreel Burn as a clean, biodiverse and vibrant river, valued by the farming, fishing, rural and urban communities of the East Neuk.

Together we have the ambition to achieve the following impacts:

  • Dreel Burn is a reliable source of clean water, with reduced impact of floods, droughts & low flows.
  • Dreel Burn offers precious green space for local residents and visitors, & a thriving natural habitat for wildlife.
  • Growth in sustainable & regenerative coastal farming, agricultural & tourism businesses, in East Neuk and across Fife.
  • Building skills and capacity locally to ensure long-term sustainability, in East Neuk and across Fife.

To achieve these impacts the Project Partners will aim to:

  • Train community leaders on relevant decision making frameworks.
  • Produce a co-designed Catchment Management Plan, that will create wetlands, remove barriers to fish migration, achieve comprehensive habitat connectivity, provide natural flood management, co-ordinated across landholdings and result in high water quality & stabilised river banks.
  • Transform local attitudes towards the burn, with regular use for leisure & wellbeing, and create productive relationships, partnerships & trust.
  • Facilitate a transition to sustainable and regenerative systems across Fife, focused on developing reliable and holistic water catchment projects, starting with the Dreel Burn.
  • Build the foundations for Nature Finance Fife.

This project is supported by NatureScot in collaboration with The Scottish Government and in partnership with the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

For more about the partners:

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