In September 1990 the Nature Conservancy Council organised an international conference on "The Conservation and Management of Rivers". The conference was truly international, attracting 337 delegates from 29 countries.

By September 2010 twenty years will have elapsed since the York conference. A huge amount has changed in the world since then – economically, politically, culturally, scientifically. This conference will look back over this period and assess the changes in river conservation – how the environment has changed, how the legislation and policies that drive conservation have changed, how organisations have changed, how techniques for practising river conservation have changed, and how public attitudes have changed. What predictions did we make in 1990? Which have been proved accurate and which have not? Where have we succeeded and where have we failed?

The 2010 conference provides an opportunity both to share experience as we look back over the last 20 years, and to use the lessons of the past to look 20 years on into the future.