What is Rewild The Church?

Rewild the Church is a growing movement of Christians, scientists, policy makers and other conscientious citizens calling for the Church Commissioners to commit to rewilding 30% of their land by 2030 – the target set by the UN and committed to by the UK Government – to help avert the interminable decline of nature. 

We are concerned about the dismal state of biodiversity in the UK. The UK is one of the most nature-depleted countries on earth, and one of the most unequal. In the age of the climate and biodiversity crisis, land is our single most important environmental resource. With half of the land owned by just 1% of the population, what large landowners like the Church do with their land will determine all of our futures – whether we can still produce food, have clean water, be safe from flooding, have access to green spaces, and see insects in the air and birds in our skies. These all depend on restoring functioning ecosystems, which can only be done at the scale needed by rewilding.

Who are the Church Commissioners and how much land do they own?

The Church Commissioners are the wealthy investment arm of the Church of England that owns over 100,000 acres of forestry and farmland across the UK as part of their £11.1 billion investment portfolio. This does not include the parish and diocesan land which includes what you may generally understand to be church land, like church buildings, yards and burial grounds where congregations around the country are already taking action to restore nature.  

If you want to imagine what this amount of land looks like when added together, think of Birmingham, which as Britain’s second biggest city measures 65,000 acres in total and is home to over 1.1m people. The Church Commissioners profit from an area almost twice as big as that. Not bad for one landowner!

Exactly where all Church Commissioner owned land is located is unclear as the Commissioners have repeatedly declined to release a public map of their land, and the Church is not subject to the Freedom of Information Act. That is why the Rewild the Church campaign is also asking the Church Commissioners to be transparent around resources by releasing a map of all the land under their ownership. By making this information accessible, the Commissioners will demonstrate they are willing to be transparent and accountable for the way their land is managed, which is what we should expect of all large landowners!

What condition is Church Commissioner land currently in?

Analysis of Church Commissioners’ land by author and campaigner, Guy Shrubsole, and botanist, Dr Tim Harris reveals that their land is significantly nature depleted. Woodland coverage on Commissioners’ land is only 3%- that’s far less than the UK’s already dismal average of 12%.  Not only do they rank bottom of the list of the UK’s top 10 landowners for woodland coverage; they are also falling further behind. The National Trust, for example, has 18% woodland coverage already, and has recently committed to rewilding 30% of its land. 

 Over half of the ecologically important habitats (known as Sites of Special Scientific Interest) on their land have been assessed as being in an unfavourable, part destroyed or destroyed condition. Given that Britain ranks in the bottom 10% of all nations globally for biodiversity, this suggests the Church is presiding over some of the most nature depleted land on the planet! 

The Commissioners have made some promising gestures in the right direction. The creation of a new nature reserve on the River Wye in 2023 is a great sign that the Commissioners understand the importance of giving land over to nature. The issue is scale. The River Wye project is a 100 acre site – that’s just 0.095% of their holdings!

How can the Church Commissioners meet the 30×30 target?

Only a staggering 3% of England is currently protected for nature, which means that if we are to reach the UN’s 30×30 target that the UK Government has committed to, then another 27% of the country will need to be rewilded. Given that 67% of England is farmed, rewilding some of this farmland will play an important role in the solution to our country’s nature and biodiversity crises. 

The majority of the Church Commissioners’ huge amount of land is farmland, and so they, alongside their tenant farmers, have an exciting opportunity to contribute to this solution in a big way. This will require working with their tenants to carefully identify land suitable for rewilding, and supporting them in the transition to reintroduce and protect the biodiversity of these landscapes. 

A closer look at the Church Commissioners’ portfolio shows us that the 30×30 target is entirely doable without impacting their most productive land. Of their rural holdings, around 3% is woodland, 2% are Sites of Special Scientific Interest, and 5% are categorised as Grade 4 poor quality agricultural land. There’s also 5,000 acres of lowland peat within the Church Commissioners’ ownership that is technically Grade 1 farmland, but when farmed, emits a staggering amount of carbon into the atmosphere instead of sequestering it – and the Church Commissioners have already been looking into restoring it for that reason. These areas together would already take us halfway to the 30% goal. The remaining 15% can, in consultation with their tenants, be derived from the Grade 3 good to moderate quality farmland that makes up the majority of the Church Commissioners’ portfolio. 

So, rewilding 30% of the Church Commissioners’ land is achievable. Not only is it possible, restoring and protecting the biodiversity of this land is crucial. The collapse of nature and the overheating of our climate is already destroying crops and decimating harvests. Restoring nature, and with it our climate, is now the only way to ensure a food-secure future.

What is rewilding and how does it work with nature-friendly farming?

Rewilding is a form of nature protection and recovery, where areas of land are transitioned away from extractive land uses that have exhausted its biodiversity, and it is instead managed to support the return of a diverse range of native plants and wildlife. Rewilding is necessary to protect areas of land dedicated to the restoration of vital ecosystem services and bring precious species and habitats back from the brink; from hedgehogs, water voles, and pine martens, to our last fragments of rainforest, wetlands, and wild meadows. The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, based on the work of thousands of the world’s leading scientists, recognises this fact when it defines the 30% of land protected for nature as land that is free from any kind of extractive industry. 

It is sometimes claimed that we don’t need rewilding because more regenerative forms of farming can make up for the catastrophic decline of nature we are witnessing. This is a false dichotomy. Rewilding complements and is needed alongside the adoption of nature-based farming and sustainable forestry, but is not replaced by these practices. We should be working towards a world in which all farming is as regenerative as possible, but that doesn’t take away the vital need for large areas to be entirely given over to natural processes.  We understand that the Church Commissioners have engaged with some of their tenant farmers to encourage regenerative farming techniques. This is great and should be extended. But it’s simply not enough. If nature is to survive it needs large protected areas that are managed primarily to restore and enhance biodiversity.

How will this affect tenant farmers?

The tenant farmers that do the work on the ground managing the land owned by the Church Commissioners will play a crucial role as part of the rewilding solution to our biodiversity and climate crises. We acknowledge that with the impacts of environmental breakdown and a warming world, changing subsidies post-Brexit and changing global markets, rewilding can seem like another uncertainty to have to think about.

A just transition forming part of Wild Card’s values statement. So, when we ask for a 30×30 target, this needs to be complemented with a commitment by the Church Commissioners to work collaboratively with and provide material and financial support that will give tenant farmers the security they need to embrace and benefit from rewilding on parts of their land. The Church Commissioners hold significant power, both as one of the largest landowners in the UK, and as landlords, and with that comes responsibility. While they can help facilitate rewilding at the scale needed because of their significant portfolio, this should not be to the detriment of the tenant farmers as stewards of the land. 
With significant new public funding streams for rewilding emerging, alongside lucrative natural capital business opportunities on the private market, rewilding is increasingly a financially attractive option for many farmers – as long as the landlord agrees. And many farmers are seeing their incomes increase as a result of rewilding. We have explored the different ways the Church Commissioners could work together with and support their tenant farmers to reach the 30×30 target in this blog.

How are we trying to drive change?

The Rewild the Church campaign is driven by a movement of supporters, both from within the church and the broader public. We have demonstrated this mass support through creative actions, such as our launch last year when we marched from the Tate Modern to St Paul’s Cathedral with Chris Packham and hundreds of people including clergy and laity (see these write-ups in the Independent and in the Church Times). We delivered our ‘95 Wild Theses’, written by people such as Dr Rowan Williams, Stephen Fry, George Eustice, Caroline Lucas, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Michael Gove, which you can read in full here. In March, Wild Card joined forces with the Climate Choir Movement to lead a procession of hundreds of choristers from around the UK holding images of native British species within St Paul’s, as they sang the rousing reworked version of All Things Bright and Beautiful. Over 104,000 people have signed our petition calling for the Commissioners’ to commit to 30×30 (do sign it here if you haven’t already!), while others have become craftivists, sending messages to the Church Commissioners via handmade creatures. We are confident that as this momentum continues and the movement grows, the Church Commissioners will have to heed the call of the masses to rewild 30×30.

How can I support the campaign?

Our movement is constantly growing, and we need your help to keep up the momentum! You can start by adding your name to the petition. Stay up to date with the campaign by signing up to our mailing list. We have a community action pack coming soon which will give you lots of resources for taking action within your local community, so keep an eye on our socials and read our newsletter to find out when it’s ready to go!

If you’re involved with a church group, a community group, or if you have a role within the church that you think might be helpful, please do reach out to us at rewildthechurch@wildcard.land.