In 2012, the Tamar Catchment Partnership adopted a stakeholder‐led ‘ecosystem services’ approach to catchment planning. This involved the host organisation (Westcountry Rivers Trust) working with stakeholders to identify areas within the catchment which play, or have the potential to play, a particularly important role in the delivery of clean water and a range of other benefits (services) to society. Through this process the stakeholders were able to develop: (1) a shared understanding of the pressures affecting ecosystem service provision in the catchment, (2) a shared vision for a catchment landscape with a blend of environmental infrastructure that may be able to deliver all of these vital services optimally in the future and (3) a clear understanding of what is currently being done to realise this vision and what additional actions may be required to bring it to full reality.