RESTORE

In the lead-up to International Wetlands Day, we are shining a spotlight on the amazing work of the team at Southill Estate in Bedfordshire, who have, in the last few months, turned a canalised ditch into a wetland wonderland. Under Restore’s guidance and in partnership with conservation organisations such as the Beaver Trust and Newt Conservation Partnership, the team at Southill focused on digging a series of ponds. Now, filled with the recent rains, these ponds have transformed the landscape, filling the channels and pools and bringing the once-uniform landscape back to life. Visible in the video is the effect of the transformation of a two-foot-wide ditch previously covered by hedge on either side. With the help of modern machinery, banks have been opened up and the water has been allowed to spill into widened pools. This in time should attract a plethora of wading birds whilst also serving numerous other species that enjoy the boggy conditions. The new wetland habitat serves as a corridor through one hundred and fifty acres of the estate that has been taken out of arable production, linking open woodland and farmland on one side, with a historical parkland on the other. The ecological gains that will be made by connecting these habitats will be enormous. Moving forward, the post-arable fields will be allowed to scrub up; a process which has already been kickstarted by planting scrub species and dotting piles of brash across the fields. The team is planning to introduce grazing animals as a natural solution for managing the scrub in the future. For us at Restore, drawing up the vision and plan for this land has been a special journey thanks to Paul Dunn, the Gamekeeper who oversees the implementation of the nature restoration plans for the estate. The landowner's passion for nature recovery has allowed for truly visionary steps to be put into practice and more ideas in the pipeline. We cannot wait to share the future successes of Southill Estate; it is a place to watch in 2025 as it cements itself at the forefront of nature restoration in the UK. #internationalwetlandsday #wetlands #rewilding #naturerestoration #restorenature #rewetting #nature #environment 

As a species we feel we need to control the environment around us and bend it to our will. Whilst there’s nothing new here, we’ve been doing it for millennia, we all know the effects this has increasingly had on the countryside over the last few hundred years. Unfortunately, this control of the hydrological landscape has led to a number of issues such as loss of wet patches (ponds, pools and puddles), land drying out as water spends less time in situ before it is channelled away downstream, erosion of banks as water moves through the system faster and at high volumes, and of course flooding caused downstream where water quickly and inevitably ends up after a heavy rainstorm. So how can we sort this out? The answer is to be messier; be more beaver. Read the full article from our Land Management Director Ross Wingfield about diesel beavers and leaky-woody dams here: https://lnkd.in/ecSPPWsZ #restorenature #nature #environment #wetlands #beaver #landmanagement

Benedict Macdonald, Founder and Director of Restore, was delighted to speak at the Citizen Zoo ‘Rewilding Our Future’ conference held in Cambridge last weekend. His talk, which you can watch here, focuses on scaling nature restoration and the need to rebuild our broken ecosystems from the bottom up. He posits that the ‘top-down’ approach to rewilding is set up to fail if we do not lay solid foundations that focus on restoring soil health, invertebrate populations, and botanical diversity. This ‘bottom-up’ approach, he argues, is more accessible and scalable to more landowners who can, through relatively straightforward means, make space for nature whilst still maintaining a viable farming or commercial operation. RESTORE, through the vision of Benedict, guides landowners embarking on a nature restoration journey; creating plans to shape the future of the land, developing financial strategies to help fund the journey, and supporting the implementation of the vision. Watch the full talk here: https://lnkd.in/dhxZk8KS #restorenature #rewilding #farming #environment #biodiversity #bng #nature #naturerestoration

Last Saturday our inspirational Species Restoration Lead, Peter Cooper, gave a talk on Glow-worm population recovery and community engagement at the fantastic Citizen Zoo Rewilding our Future conference. The UK and global rewilding communities have grown significantly since the first Citizen Zoo conference was held back in 2019, and the importance of community was one of Pete's main takeaways from the conference.  Community is so often at the core of what makes nature restoration work - and Pete wanted to highlight in his talk how Glow-worms can be the spark that ignites passion and engagement across local and professional communities. These insects have enchanted civilisations for thousands of years, often as symbols of hope and renewal. Thanks to this cultural connection, Glow-worms, which thrive in messy habitat mosaics, can help us to begin important conversations about the need to re-establish dynamic ecosystem processes. At RESTORE, we like to think of them as miniature umbrella species, or 'cocktail umbrella species'! ☂️ Glow-worms continue to experience steep localised declines in Britain, in spite of concerted conservation action. Many sites that have historically lost their Glow-worms, but which are now once again suitable for them, are too isolated from remaining populations to allow natural recolonisation to occur.  In these situations, Glow-worms require a helping hand. This is where Pete comes in! Troubled by the continued decline of this most engaging of species, Pete began undertaking baseline surveys to establish presence or likely absence of Glow-worms across suitable landscapes and initiated a captive breeding and release programme. He is now working on a reintroduction at Nosterfield Nature Reserve in Yorkshire, where the species has not been present for over a century.  One of the most inspiring things Pete has encountered through his Glow-worm reintroduction projects is the ability of these fascinating little insects to unite people, through direct involvement in release programmes and by inspiring communities to push for the recovery of ecological complexity in their local landscapes. The unbridled joy that can be seen on the faces of citizen scientists when they are releasing Glow-worm larvae, or when they catch sight of the phosphorescent green glow of an adult during a baseline survey is incomparable.  At RESTORE, we believe that the humble Glow-worm can continue to inspire people to act for nature for many years to come, and we are taking action to scale captive breeding efforts and recover local populations of this species through direct reintroductions across the UK.  Watch this space for further updates!  🐛 Watch the full talk here: https://lnkd.in/dRYMzSFC #wilding #glowworms #rewilding #species #wildlife #reintroductions #nature #environment

RESTORE delighted to be attending the The Crown Estate Nature Restoration event at UK Parliament this evening, alongside heads of RSPB, The Wildlife Trusts and many others. It’s been most interesting listening to, and engaging with, the major ambitions of one of the UK’s most influential land custodians - to greatly increase biodiversity not only on the land but in the ocean. An ambitious task that will take many public and private sector nature bodies to deliver but a great statement of intent and purpose. “Nature cannot be seen in competition with food production - but is vital to food security” says minister Steve Reed this evening, as he talks mass-scale nutrient pollution reduction and launch of a proper UK nature restoration fund. “We must put nature right at the centre of this government’s agenda”.

This excellent summary by Paul Turner-Smith very much echoes the feelings and thoughts of RESTORE as we enter 2025: the year of unlocking natural capital, alongside others such as Oxygen Conservation and Nattergal Ltd in the nature restoration market. Across 2024, our key focus was on growing acres and clients; ensuring we have a sound nature restoration portfolio - one that thankfully continues to grow, as demand from landowners for restoring their land grows apace. However, as we move into 2025, it is critical that we accelerate change on the ground, and unlocking natural capital - on sites awaiting but yet to feel the full force of nature restoration uplift - will be key. The core barrier for landowners and especially smaller-acreage farmers wishing to restore nature - whether process-led ecological restoration ("rewilding") at scale, or recovery of functioning habitats in farmland - is finance at the front end. It's all very well having cash later, but how do you transition a farm dependent upon intensive processes, without enormous risk? There is a growing realisation and acceptance that by restoring nature, capital can be unlocked in the future - but still an annoying lack of emphasis, if you are a farmer, on how capital can 'bridge' the gap, and help you transition from extractive land practice towards restorative, with the certainty needed to carry out bold change with confidence. This year, RESTORE and its growing natural capital team, led by Gil Martin, will be pushing further than before in ensuring transitions into restoration are de-risked, and natural capital products that deliver up-front certainty will be a critical piece of this puzzle.

We’ve just spent an inspiring couple of days at the Citizen Zoo Rewilding Futures conference in Cambridge, surrounded by people passionate about rewilding and nature restoration. Our very own Benedict Macdonald shared how we can scale up nature restoration profitably on farms and estates, while Peter Cooper gave a brilliant talk on glowworm breeding and reintroductions. It’s been a fantastic chance to learn, connect, and feel energised about the future of rewilding! 🌱🐛 #RewildingFuturesConference #NatureRestoration #CitizenZoo

𝗥𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝘄𝗲𝗹𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲𝘀 𝗚𝗶𝗹 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗶𝗻, 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗲𝗿𝗰𝗶𝗮𝗹 & 𝗡𝗮𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗮𝗹 𝗖𝗮𝗽𝗶𝘁𝗮𝗹 𝗗𝗶𝗿𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗼𝗿     It is with great excitement that we can announce that Gil Martin has joined us at Restore, as Commercial and Natural Capital Director.    Gil is known and highly regarded by many in the rewilding  and natural capital community as one of the key architects of the Belmont Estate wilding programme.  In the past 2 years, Belmont has created and set trends with its innovative use of natural capital products, incredible track record in BNG sales, rapid nature wetland creation, and formation of an educational and wilder farming hub. Gil’s career begun as a farm manager, where he was intuitively drawn to regenerative practices, and six years ago he became the estate manager of Belmont, Somerset, progressing to become their director of estates and natural capital.      A land managing pioneer driven by true ecological restoration principles, Gil will now lead on the development of Restore’s transition from consultancy business to full restoration powerhouse – not only creating natural capital deals for our clients, and buyers, but helping streamline investment into our ever-growing portfolio of projects.    In an emerging natural capital market where everybody promises the earth, Restore and its clients put enormous emphasis on the arrival of real capital into projects from the start.  Gil’s extraordinary track record in this regard further strengthens our ability to scale restoration, and create capital for a of large-scale landscape projects.    This development also marks an exciting completion of the major Restore staffing phase that has taken place over the past 4 months – dividing the company into five interlocking disciplines: vision, natural capital and finance, land management, ecology and species reintroduction.   It’s going to an exciting 2025! #naturalcapital #bng #finance #nature #environment #restorenature Eoin Murray Robert Gardner Ivan de Klee Rob Wreglesworth Rich Stockdale PhD Cain Blythe Tony Juniper CBE

Last week’s illegal release of four lynx in Scotland has sparked a critical debate about rewilding efforts. Read our full statement by Peter Cooper and Benedict Macdonald here: https://lnkd.in/e7Y9nVXs #lynx #rewilding #reintroductions #guerrilla #nature #environment

𝗥𝗘𝗦𝗧𝗢𝗥𝗘 𝘄𝗲𝗹𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲𝘀 𝗕𝗶𝗼𝗱𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗡𝗲𝘁 𝗚𝗮𝗶𝗻 & 𝗙𝗮𝗿𝗺 𝗙𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗱, 𝗧𝗼𝗺 𝗕𝗿𝗶𝗱𝗴𝗲.   As Restore scales its team - ready for an unprecedented demand for nature restoration and natural capital services in 2025 - we are delighted to welcome Tom Bridge to the team.  Now a highly-respected specialist in Biodiversity Net Gain, Tom brings extensive experience of managing farm and estate finance, and is passionate about supporting rural businesses - and helping them with nature-based transitions.    Tom’s journey has spanned a lifelong passion for sustainable agriculture. Growing up in the west Suffolk countryside, he began working with cattle in the Norfolk Broads; learning about conservation and biodiversity grazing systems. As an Agri-environmental scheme advisor, Tom has travelled the breadth of the UK, helping farmers to put nature within the farmed landscape. Three years of instigating regenerative farming systems in Hampshire later, Tom’s journey naturally progressed towards Natural Capital.   Tom’s ability to understand both classical farm finance and grants, alongside start-to-end BNG sales, has led to an impressive track record – closing over £1m of deals across 2024 in the BNG during a still nascent and rapidly-changing market, putting his one-person operation ahead of Savills. Now, in partnership with Restore and its large-acreage Portfolio, we are excited to be able to offer our clients a faster and more comprehensive BNG journey, across both Section 106 and Conservation Covenant approaches to market.     “Tom’s rare ability to bridge the traditional and novel financing of farms furthers Restore’s ability to help its clients transition, fast, towards ambitious nature recovery” says Benedict Macdonald. Founding Director of Restore.    “Tom is detailed, trusted and, unlike many natural capital operators, deeply rooted in farming & rural reality - and the challenged faced by landowners seeking transition on their land. He is aspirational but pragmatic, and a huge asset as we launch Restore Natural Capital for 2025, in collaboration with an array of specialist natural capital partners”.     “I have been very impressed with Restore’s approach to developing the right habitat in the right location, in conjunction with the landowner’s ambition” says Tom, “and then finding the most appropriate blended finance packages to support this restoration.  This essential to achieving meaningful change. This approach means the projects are led by ecological delivery and supported by long term sustainable funding. I am exciting to start working with existing and new Restore clients to develop sustainable funding models, to support their aspirations for ecological restoration.”   Next week, Restore will have more exciting news to share - as we are joined by one of the UK’s leading pioneers in nature restoration and natural capital…   Watch this space! #restorenature #naturalcapital #bng #finance #nature