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In our continuing series on landscape and the biodiversity crisis, we speak to rewilding pioneer Isabella Tree of the Knepp Estate in West Sussex, hailed as ‘one of the most exciting wildlife conservation projects in the UK’.
Tree explains why a proposed development of 3,500 homes adjacent to Knepp would undermine her two decade-long rewilding project, the critical importance of Nature Recovery Networks and why Brexit is good news for the environment. The stand-off between Knepp and local developer Thakeham Homes goes to the heart of the government’s conflicting aims of housing delivery, planning reform and nature conservation.
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About Isabella Tree
Isabella Tree and her husband Charlie Burrell inherited the Knepp Estate as an unprofitable dairy farm in the early 1980s. After 15 years in the dairy business, they took a bold decision in 2001 to sell off the dairy operation and undertake a rewilding project, letting nature heal itself. Two decades on Knepp, located just 20 miles south-west of Gatwick Airport, has been transformed from pesticide-laden agricultural land to a biodiversity hotspot, a journey compellingly recounted by Tree in her 2018 book Wilding.
Knepp’s Hammer Pond in 2004 and 2017
Source: Knepp Archives / Charlie Burrell
Show notes: resources mentioned in this episode
Source: Charlie Burrell
Guardian article: Nimby against Nimby with map locating proposed Buck Barn development
Isabella Tree’s lecture Rewilding Knepp, Linnean Society, 8 July 2021
Wilding, Isabella Tree, Picador 2018
Defra metric for biodiversity net gain
ELMS Environmental Land Management Schemes for sustainable farming and local nature recovery
Groundswell Regenerative Agriculture Show
Kew Gardens research on reforestation
Credits
Climate Champions is produced in association with ACAN, the Architects’ Climate Action Network
Podcast produced and edited by Concept Culture
Music: Edmilson do Pífano, Forró de dois Amigos. Interpretation: Felipe Tanaka e banda Balaio de Baião