Target 15.5: Take urgent action to reduce the degradation of natural habitats and halt biodiversity loss.
The Problem Charlie Burrell inherited the Knepp Estate in West Sussex in 1983 and struggled for 18 years to make intensive farming pay on its heavy clay.
The Move They Made In 2001, Charlie Burrell and Isabella Tree stopped intensive farming and let natural processes return. They used free-roaming longhorn cattle, Exmoor ponies, Tamworth pigs and deer. In 2016 Knepp became a founding partner of the White Stork Project, with Cotswold Wildlife Park and the Roy Dennis Wildlife Foundation. The project is now run by the Knepp Wildland Foundation.
The Proof
A 2012 survey by Imperial College London recorded 34 nightingale territories at Knepp.
Male turtle dove territories rose to 20 in one recent survey year, at a time when a county-wide survey estimated only about 80 territories across Sussex.
By 2015 Knepp held the UK's largest breeding population of purple emperor butterflies.
13 of the UK's 17 bat species have been recorded.
In 2020, white stork chicks fledged in the wild at Knepp, the first in Britain for centuries.
The estate now earns its income from ecotourism, safaris, organic meat and its restaurant.
Your Move Knepp built a business on what came back. Measure what returns, and make the return pay for the work.
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