CHRIS PACKHAM and other celebrities have challenged the Church Commissioners to rewild 30 per cent of their estate by 2030 — to “give British wildlife the salvation that it desperately needs”.
The BBC Springwatch presenter was joined by other prominent figures, including the former Environment Secretary Michael Gove, the actor Stephen Fry, the former Green Party leader Caroline Lucas, the chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, and the former Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Williams. More than 100,000 members of the public have backed the campaign, which was launched on the steps of St Paul’s Cathedral on Sunday morning.
Supporters marched from Tate Modern, on Bankside, to St Paul’s, holding colourful banners and model animals and singing hymns. In a reference to Martin Luther’s 95 theses, the protest regarded as having launched the Reformation, Mr Packham read from a nine-metre scroll described as the “95 Wild Theses”, which included reasons for the Commissioners to rewild their land.
Mr Packham said: “The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, and the Church’s wealthy investment arm — the Church Commissioners — are failing all things bright and beautiful. Despite the Archbishop recently stating that ‘God is green, and he calls on us to be green,’ the majority of the Church Commissioners’ land is in a dire ecological condition. As one of the biggest institutional landowners in one of the world’s most nature depleted countries, the Church should be a leader in restoring our precious wildlife.”
He also criticised the Bishop of Norwich, the Rt Revd Graham Usher, the Church’s lead spokesperson on the environment, for refusing to meet to talk about boosting nature on church land. “The Archbishop and the Church Commissioners, including the bishop of the environment, have declined our many attempts to discuss how they can rewild their vast estate,” Mr Packham said.
“We hope the immense support on display today, which is championed by many in the Church, will help to convince church leaders to step up to the pulpit. If they are willing to practise what they preach they could rewild just one third of their land, which would equate to an area 90 times the size of Hyde Park and give British wildlife the salvation that it desperately needs.”
The UK is ranked in the bottom ten per cent of nations globally for biodiversity. The campaign, organised by Wild Card and Christian Climate Action, has the support of more than 100,000 members of the public, who have signed a petition on the website 38Degrees. Lord Williams said: “Letting the natural world be itself — not just a reserve bank for our convenience — is an act of grace, and one that we should be glad to embrace, because when the world around us flourishes, so do we.”
In a statement, Archbishop Welby said that he welcomed the initiative and the continued pressure to ensure biodiversity and wildlife protection in the UK.
“We’re called by God to steward carefully this beautiful world, and to protect what’s been gifted to us,” he said. “Among many amazing local rewilding projects in dioceses across the country, the Church of England manages 88,000 acres of forests, ensuring sustainable practices and biodiversity conservation. We’ve set the target of net zero carbon emissions by 2030, with land use playing a central role.”
A spokesperson for the Commissioners said that they were obliged under charity law to use their assets in a way that generated market returns. Joel Scott-Halkes, a Wild Card co-founder, however, said: “The Church Commissioners’ claim that they are bound by charity law to intensively farm every inch of their land to death is deeply upsetting and un-Christlike. If they were truly protecting their assets they would realise that the collapse of ecosystems and overheating of our climate is an imminent threat to all their wealth, and could render those precious assets null and void soon anyway.”
Rewilding could produce good financial returns, he said. “Today innovative companies around the world, such as Nattergal in the UK, are demonstrating that rewilding can turn better profits than continuing to exhaust our landscapes in the name of farming. We look forward to meeting with the Church Commissioners to explore financial and legal models that could unlock rewilding on their land at last.”
Joe Ware is senior climate journalist at Christian Aid.