Well: it’s been a week since the Reverend Canon Val Plumb put forward her Private Members’ Motion, calling on the Church of England to make a measurable commitment towards the UK’s 30by30 goal. 

This goal comes about because the UK is one of over 190 countries which have signed up to the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework – an agreement which incorporates lots of different steps to support the many struggling species and habitats on the planet. One of the most important of these is 30by30, shorthand for promising to protect 30% of both land and sea for nature by 2030.

As one of England’s largest landowners, it’s crucial that the Church of England plays its part – and is willing to be held accountable –  on these issues. That means more than praying for and appreciating the abundance of nature  – it means practical action to “till and keep” God’s creation in good condition. And to know whether we’re doing that, we have to establish a baseline and progress: we have to be accountable. If 30by30 isn’t feasible, then at the least some other target, and some measurements, must be put in place.

As regular readers of the blog will know, in the debate an amendment was introduced which effectively blocked the most important elements of the PMM: that measure of accountability. Instead, it spoke of actions already underway, but introduced no new steps or monitoring. Effectively, this means ‘business as usual’.

That’s bad enough in and of itself: if other groups like the Crown Estates can measure how they’re doing on encouraging tenant farmers to protect nature, why can’t the Church of England? 

The answer is, of course, that they could, but the Church Commissioners who hold and manage the CoE’s land simply don’t want to be held to account. Not only is this a woeful failure to manage their assets properly, it also undermines the ability of the UK as a whole to report back on its progress. As a substantial landowner, the Church Commissioners is a member of the National Environment Network Group, a group established by DEFRA to (among other things) provide measurable contributions towards the Government’s 30by30 commitment.  Many members of this group have committed to measurable targets contributing to 30by30 – some even more than that. 

This matters. If the Commissioners won’t measure and report on how much of its land it’s protecting for nature, and what progress is being made, then those figures can’t be included in the NEN Group’s calculations. The Commissioners could achieve 100by30, or just 1by30 – in neither case would those numbers be counted towards the collated figures for the UK. So in ducking accountability, the Church is effectively undermining the UK-wide’s efforts.

During the debate it was stated that the Church Commissioners have undertaken an ‘assessment’ of the nature of their landholdings, which found that the costs of committing to a set target would be so significant as to breach their fiduciary duty. It would be interesting to see the brief for, and outcome of, that exercise and we’d encourage them to be transparent: sharing that information needn’t breach any confidentiality concerns, either for them or their tenants, and it might give comfort to the many observers who were aghast at the derailment of the PMM. We are interested to better understand how the Commissioners reached this conclusion, particularly considering the substantial evidence indicating that restoring nature would either be cost neutral or increase asset value over the medium and long term outlined in our Getting Back to the Garden report. This includes research conducted by the Commissioners own land agent Savills that shows that rewilding schemes can be more lucrative than arable farming, as well as examples of farmers and land owners around the country benefitting from nature-based revenue such as Duchy of Cornwall tenants, Boothby Wildlands and the Knepp Estate. Contrary to what the Commissioners claimed, the Legal Opinion provided by Mark Hill KC – one of the UK’s top ecclesiastical lawyers and the Chancellor for Leeds Diocese – confirmed that “[the] fiduciary duty of the Commissioners… does not inhibit them from implementing 30by30“.

Some ambitious claims were also made as to the percentage of Church Commissioner land that is classified as the best, most productive land. The Commissioners stated that 90% of their land is highly productive – however this claim is misleading. According to the Commissioners own data shared in response to General Synod Questions in July 2025:

• – 41% of its farmland is Grades 1 and 2, classified by the government as excellent to very good quality agricultural land; 
• – 49% is Grade 3 land, classified by the government as good to moderate quality agricultural land with limitations and more variable yields. This includes Grade 3b land which the Governments Land Use Framework identifies as suitable for alternative uses including nature restoration. One known example of Grade 3b land that has been successfully restored is the Knepp Estate, which struggled as a farm due to its low quality clay soil, but now earns over £200k/year from nature-based revenue.

The motion proposed by Rev Val Plumb focused on meeting the 30% target by restoring low-productivity land, special habitats, peatland, and a small portion of Grade 3b land – without touching the Commissioners high-grade farmland.

I’m also prompted to respond to the speaker at Synod who demanded to know who Wild Card is, and by whom we’re funded. There’s no need for concern, choose to be transparent!  You can find information about our more substantial funders here: What is Wild Card? – Wild Card  part way down the page – and in addition we’re supported by smaller donations from our many members, who give us what they’re able when we run crowdfunders or via ad hoc donations.  

Let’s hope that those who sought to derail the original amendment by misguidedly claiming it to be too costly and unnecessary, reflect on their arguments, tactics and moral duty. Let’s also hope they decide to join other responsible landowners and farm landlords, in getting England Back to the Garden.