LAS CASAS INSTITUTE ANNUAL LECTURE 2019

Isabella Tree:
WILDING - the return of nature to a British farm

Isabella Tree is an award-winning travel writer and author, married to the conservationist Sir Charles Burrell. Together they have embarked on a daring wildlife experiment: the rewilding of Knepp Estate in West Sussex.

Forced to accept that intensive farming on the heavy Sussex clay was economically ruinous, they decided to step back and let nature take over. By introducing free-roaming herbivores — proxies of the large animals that once roamed Britain— the Burrells’ degraded agricultural land has become a functioning ecosystem again. In less than twenty years wildlife has rocketed and numerous endangered species have made Knepp their home.

The Knepp experience challenges conventional ideas about our past and present landscape, and points the way to a wilder, richer future — a countryside that benefits farming, nature and us.

Blackfriars Hall is a UK Registered Charity No. 231192 (England & Wales), SC039062 (Scotland)

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