Nattergal: A natural capital approach to rewilding degraded land at scale

Governance

Nattergal is a sister company to Knepp Wildling and Highlands Rewilding (9). The Non-Executive Chairman of Nattergal, Sir Charlie Burrell is one of the founders of Knepp Wildland, and Non-Executive Director Jeremy Leggett is the founder of Highlands Rewilding. Nattergal acts as an umbrella company that raises the investment profile and owns individual restoration sites (8). Boothby Wildland and High Fen Wildland are run as individual companies with local steering groups and a local community engagement plan.

Nattergal has recognised the vital role of engagement in their mission. In 2023, they partnered with researchers from the Countryside and Community Research Institute (University of Gloucestershire) and University of Oxford to create an evidence-led strategy for public and stakeholder engagement. This strategy encompasses best practices, emphasising the importance of engagement in achieving environmental goals. Nattergal’s approach combines online and in-person community workshops to involve local stakeholders in shaping Boothby Wildland’s plans. These workshops aim to maintain an open dialogue with the community to assess the project’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Feedback on their approach to engagement is also collected to continuously improve their strategy over time, helping to ensure a more effective and responsive approach that works well for local people.

Finance

Nattergal was set up to provide sustainable financial returns from landscape restoration. Potential income streams include ecotourism and accommodation, sale of biodiversity, carbon, nitrate and phosphate credits, and sale of biodiversity net gain (BNG) units (10). BNG units are being advertised for purchase on the company platform for both sites (11). Following restoration, BNG units are approved by a Section 106 local agreement or Conservation Covenant. Habitats advertised in February 2024 for Boothby include lowland meadow, ponds, natural grassland, scrub, and woodland, and habitats for High Fen include floodplain wetland mosaic, scrub, and grassland. Following restoration, these sites will be managed and monitored for 30 years. Nattergal is part of an Environmental Land Management Landscape Recovery pilot, which enables land managers to apply for funding for large-scale landscape recovery programmes (3).

Monitoring and evaluation

Prior to restoration efforts at Boothby, aerial mapping through drone imagery was carried out to establish an understanding of the landscape. In addition, breeding bird surveys are conducted along transects to plot birds seen or heard. This collected survey data is then compared with nationwide breeding bird data obtained by the BTO.

As part of the sale of BNG units, sites will be managed, monitored and results reported for 30 years. Ecologists use a habitat classification system, UK Hab, to measure biodiversity on site. BNG units are then calculated using the Defra Statutory Biodiversity Metric 4.1 tool, which assesses habitat conditions as a proxy for biodiversity (12). The tool compares baseline to post-management changes in habitats by analysing habitat size, condition, distinctiveness, and their significance due to their location.

Monitoring and research efforts are conducted in partnership with research institutions. For example, the baselining of High Fen is conducted in partnership with Cambridge University and the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (3).

Trade-offs and limitations

Some residents at Lincolnshire have voiced concerns regarding restoration initiatives, citing the loss of arable land for farming and potential conflicts arising from the introduction of herbivores (13) (14). However, according to Nattergal, the land was producing only moderate yields of crops destined for livestock feed.