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 distinguished figures, including the previous Environment Secretary Michael Gove, the actor Stephen Fry, the previous Green Party leader Caroline Lucas, the chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, and the previous Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Williams. More than 100,000 members of the general 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 vibrant banners and model animals and singing hymns. In a reference to Martin Luther’s 95 theses, the protest considered having launched the Reformation, Mr Packham read from a nine-metre scroll described because 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 vibrant and exquisite. Despite the Archbishop recently stating that ‘God is green, and he calls on us to be green,’ nearly all of the Church Commissioners’ land is in a dire ecological condition. As considered one of the most important institutional landowners in considered one of the world’s most nature depleted countries, the Church needs to be a pacesetter 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 satisfy to speak about boosting nature on church land. “The Archbishop and the Church Commissioners, including the bishop of the environment, have declined our many attempts to debate how they’ll rewild their vast estate,” Mr Packham said.
“We hope the immense support on display today, which is championed by many within the Church, will help to persuade church leaders to step as much as the pulpit. If they’re willing to practise what they preach they may rewild only one third of their land, which might equate to an area 90 times the scale of Hyde Park and provides British wildlife the salvation that it desperately needs.”
The UK is ranked in the underside ten per cent of countries globally for biodiversity. The campaign, organised by Wild Card and Christian Climate Action, has the support of greater than 100,000 members of the general public, who’ve signed a petition on the web site 38Degrees. Lord Williams said: “Letting the natural world be itself — not only a reserve bank for our convenience — is an act of grace, and one which we should always be glad to embrace, because when the world around us flourishes, so will we.”
In a press release, Archbishop Welby said that he welcomed the initiative and the continued pressure to make sure biodiversity and wildlife protection within the UK.
“We’re called by God to steward fastidiously this beautiful world, and to guard 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 goal 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 make use of their assets in a way that generated market returns. Joel Scott-Halkes, a Wild Card co-founder, nonetheless, said: “The Church Commissioners’ claim that they’re certain 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’d realise that the collapse of ecosystems and overheating of our climate is an imminent threat to all their wealth, and will render those precious assets null and void soon anyway.”
Rewilding could produce good financial returns, he said. “Today revolutionary corporations world wide, corresponding to Nattergal within the UK, are demonstrating that rewilding can turn higher profits than continuing to exhaust our landscapes within the name of farming. We sit up for meeting with the Church Commissioners to explore financial and legal models that would unlock rewilding on their land ultimately.”
Joe Ware is senior climate journalist at Christian Aid.
