Wildcard
100,000 signatures reached
To: The Church Commissioners
Help save nature by rewilding the Church’s massive landholdings!
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Help fight the climate and biodiversity crisis by restoring nature on land owned by the Church’s wealthy investment arm.
Why is this important?
What would Jesus do if he owned 108,000 acres (over 60,000 football pitches) of land? Would he farm the vast majority for profit, or would he use some of it to restore forests, wetlands and meadows to help save our vanishing wildlife?
This is the dilemma faced by the Church of England whose wealthy and secretive investment arm - the Church Commissioners - own this staggering amount of land. In total the estate is worth over £10bn! Forget the churchyards - they’re just the tip of the iceberg.
How are the Church Commissioners stewarding their land in England?
- Only 4% of the Commissioners’ land is covered by trees (compared to the UK’s already poor 13% average).
- Over half of the special habitats on their land are in an unsatisfactory state.
- The Commissioners’ land includes 5000 acres of degraded peat in the Fens which is emitting tonnes of carbon every year instead of sequestering it.
As one of the biggest landowners in England, with a moral duty to care for all of creation, this is a BIG problem!
Dear Church Commissioners: the Church of England, which you serve, is playing an important role in protecting all of God’s creation from the climate and biodiversity crises through initiatives such as Eco Church. Yet most of the 108,000 acres of land under your control is still part of the nature loss and climate change problem, when it could be part of the solution.
The UN has recommended that we need to rewild 30% of land globally by 2030 to avert the worst environmental collapse. If you met this target, you would be able to restore nature to land over half the size of Dartmoor! It would send a huge and powerful signal to landowners and governments around the world and could inspire a wave of rewilding action.
Committing to rewilding 30% of the land you own would be an act of good stewardship for both people and nature, actively working towards a future more liveable for all.
Will you invest in nature and rewild your land?
How it will be delivered
Last October we held a beautiful gathering outside St Paul’s Cathedral, where Chris Packham unveiled our '95 Wild Theses’ in support of the Rewild the Church campaign. In March this year, hundreds of choristers from around the UK came together in another moving demonstration of support - this time inside St Paul’s!
To get involved in exciting actions like these to deliver our message to the Church Commissioners, please give us your consent so we can get in touch with the details!
