When you think of the Church of England you imagine quaint church yards and ivy covered church walls. However, the Church is one of the UK’s biggest institutional land owners, managing the majority of their land for profit, not nature.
(You can read the full reasoning for our new campaign here)
The Church Commissioners are the historic investment arm of the Church of England, in charge of a huge £10bn estate of over 105,000 acres. To give you a sense of the scale, the land held by the Church Commissioners is 1.5x the size of Birmingham. This land is managed predominantly to provide pensions for retired clergy. However, deriving profit from land does not have to be at the expense of nature.
The United Nations has estimated that we need to rewild an area of land the size of China by 2030 to have any chance of meeting our climate targets. This is an enormous task and, with Britain ranked in the bottom 10% of nations globally for biodiversity, big British landowners bear a doubly large responsibility to lead the way. By rewilding 30% of their land, the Church Commissioners have the power to restore an area of land half the size of Dartmoor – a truly significant contribution to the national effort. It is for this reason that the Church Commissioners land, and what they decide to do with it matters to all of us in Britain, including people of all faiths and none.
There are several metrics that show just how nature-depleted the land managed by the Church Commissioner’s is. Research by Guy Shrubsole and Tim Harris has shown that 3% of the Church Commissioners’ land in England is woodland; significantly less than the national average of 13%, or the European average of 39%. Thanks to their work, we also know that just 2% of this land is designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI). SSSIs are the most important ecological designation in the UK, marking areas vital to wildlife like wetlands, peatlands, grasslands and scrublands – in short the places where biodiversity can thrive and carbon can be drawn down. Based on the limited data we have available (given the Church’s immunity to freedom of information requests) the land managed by the Church Commissioners is some of the most nature depleted land in Britain.
The Church Commissioners’ are already on the right path. Campaigning by groups like Operation Noah encouraged the Church Commissioners to commit to divesting from fossil fuels in 2023, bringing their financial investments in line with the Paris Climate Agreement to keep global temperature rises within 1.5C of warming. This was great news and a huge act of environmental leadership. However, the Paris Climate Agreement covers only the first half of the climate and nature crisis.
Wild Card is making a simple request of the Church Commissioners; you have shown incredible global leadership by supporting the UN climate goals, now it’s time to build on this and pledge to meet the nature goals as well.
Just imagine it! The Church of England, one of the most influential institutions in Britain, pledging to bring its land investments inline with the Kunming-Montreal protocol (the UN protocol addressing biodiversity). This would be a much needed shot in the arm for the global movement to save biodiversity and would surely set in motion a cascade of action from other landowners and states. The opportunity is enormous!
We are calling Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, to protect all of God’s creations and call on the Church Commissioner’s to rewild part of their vast estate. Join our petition here!
You can also contribute to the new 95 Wild Theses here. This is our re-imagined 95 Theses fit for the 21st Century calling on the Church to make a radical change in its approach to protecting our planet.