The Club continues to make progress with its accessibility issues thanks to our association and collaboration with Swansea University and Professor Carlos Garcia De Leaniz and his team. Since the AMBER project ‘Reconnecting our River the Afan’ in 2019 when it was discovered that the Afan had 259 artificial barriers compared with only 33 listed on official records 8 times as many barriers than was at first thought. We have continued to work with Carlos and his team and more recently alongside Afonydd Cymru, the West Wales Rivers Trust and NRW on the project ‘Reconnecting the Salmon Rivers of Wales’. Although much of the current work involves rivers which are sited in Special Areas of Conservation SACs which the Afan is not, we are hopeful that we can reap some rewards whereby some small barrier removals on the Afan will result in substantial habitat gains for salmon, sewin and wild brown trout. In addition, many of the barriers on the Afan are the asset of Welsh Water Dwr Cymru and funding to remove these barriers is a major issue. However, the Club continues to meet with Welsh Water to look for solutions.

The Afan Valley Angling and Conservation Club is pleased and honoured to give its support to Swansea University and the AMBER Project in its bid for the Horizon Impact Award prize 2022. This award is an EC initiative to recognise and celebrate outstanding projects that have used their results for the benefit of society. The AMBER Project has certainly done that for the River Afan!