New legal analysis rejects Church Commissioners argument that the Church of England cannot support global goal 

An independent legal opinion by leading ecclesiastical lawyer Mark Hill KC has found that the Church Commissioners face no legal barriers to adopting 30by30 nature restoration targets, directly challenging their claim that fiduciary duties prevent them from doing so. 

The analysis has found that the Church Commissioners are legally free and morally compelled to act to protect and restore biodiversity, yet lag behind other large landowners such as the Crown Estate and National Trust in this respect. Commissioned by campaign group Wild Card, the legal opinion is being shared ahead of a crucial meeting of the General Synod on 14th July, where Reverend Canon Valerie Plumb’s Private Member’s Motion is set to be debated. Revd Plumb will address the Church’s national assembly, calling on the Synod to instruct the Commissioners to protect nature “in line with the scale and urgency of the climate and biodiversity crises”. 

Ahead of the debate the Secretary General of the General Synod has released a paper presenting the Church Commissioners’ argument against the Church of England adopting the UK Government-backed global target to protect 30% of land and sea for nature by 2030. “As trustees of an endowment, which is held on specific trusts for the generation of sustainable income now, and long-term capital growth for the future which supports the Church’s mission and ministry, the Church Commissioners assess that the commitments proposed are not consistent with these responsibilities and would be expected to have a material negative impact on income and value.” 

The Legal Opinion argues: “The Commissioners are under no such inhibition nor is there any other legal obstacle to prevent the Commissioners from adopting 30by30 targets. There is ample evidence that adopting the targets, including the 30by30 initiative, involves little or no risk of significant financial detriment to the value or yield of assets across the rural land portfolio. It seems irrational that the Commissioners are advancing policies to promote net zero and combatting climate change whilst not similarly promoting biodiversity targets. The Church Commissioners are something of an outlier amongst major landowners in not adopting Targets 2 and 3 of the Global Biodiversity Framework.”

The motion, raised by Revd Plumb earlier this year, has been backed by 108 General Synod members in advance of the meeting. There has also been overwhelming public support, with 130,000 members of the public backing the campaign to Rewild the Church. 

The Commissioners admitted at Synod last year that they had not yet undertaken a portfolio-wide assessment of the benefits and costs of 30by30. The Church is one of the wealthiest institutional investors in the UK, with £11.6 billion in assets. The majority of the Church Commissioners’ 102,000 acres of rural land is currently used for commercial farming, with only 3,600 acres of that (just 3.5%) dedicated to nature. The Church Commissioners, who manage the estate, argue that their ‘fiduciary duty’ – the legal obligation to act solely in the best interest of another party – constrains their capacity to align with the UN target of protecting 30by30. However, analysis by Wild Card, published earlier this year, shows that this claim doesn’t hold up when examined against the Church’s impressive financial performance. The report, Getting Back to the Garden, outlines how, as one of the nation’s largest landowners, the Church can play a much greater role in protecting nature without impacting its significant profits. It has been endorsed by economist Sir Partha Dasgupta, author and conservationist Isabella Tree, environmental economics Professor Ian Bateman, and renowned ethical investor Deborah Meaden.

NOTES TO EDITORS

CONTACT INFORMATION

Heather Carswell: press@wildcard.land

ABOUT WILD CARD

Wild Card is a citizens’ movement campaigning for the UK’s biggest landowners to urgently rewild their lands in response to the climate and nature emergency. With over 400,000 people supporting their campaigns to date they have already claimed successes in persuading the royal estates and other landowners to begin ambitious nature restoration schemes. Discover more about the campaign to rewild the Ghost Woods here.