AN OPEN letter signed by the former Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Williams and nearly 50 other prominent figures and campaigning organisations has called on the Archbishop-designate of Canterbury, the Rt Revd Sarah Mullally, to make environmental stewardship a “defining mission” of her archiepiscopate.
The signatories include the actor and broadcaster Stephen Fry, the naturalist Chris Packham, the chef and food campaigner Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, and the leader of the Green Party, Zack Polanski, alongside environmental scientists, theologians, and Christian climate groups.
The letter, co-ordinated by the campaign group Wild Card, refers to the Church of England’s position as a significant landowner. The Church Commissioners manage more than 100,000 acres.
The letter states: “As the natural world freefalls and the climate crisis accelerates, many of us feel powerless to respond. Yet today, as you step into one of the most spiritually significant roles in the country, you take up a rare responsibility — one with the power to lead real change. The Church of England has a unique opportunity to take action to combat the devastating decline of our natural world, not just as a moral voice, but as one of the country’s top 10 largest landowners.”
Much of the Commissioners’ estate is “in poor ecological condition”, the letter says.
The Wild Card website, citing research by the author and campaigner Guy Shrubsole, says that only three per cent of the Commissioners’ land holding is woodland — below the average for UK land as a whole of 13 per cent — and that only two per cent is Sites of Special Scientific Interest, of which only 45 per cent is “in favourable condition”, according to a General Synod answer reportedly given in 2021 by the First Church Estates Commissioner at the time, Loretta Minghella.
The signatories urge the incoming Archbishop to call for the Commissioners to protect 30 per cent of this land for nature by 2030, aligning with the global biodiversity target adopted by the UK Government and more than 190 nations. They write: “This target is a historic national undertaking; it will not be achieved without the Church’s support.”
The Church of England’s investing bodies have disinvested from fossil fuels (News, 30 June 2023), and the General Synod has called for increased biodiversity across church landholdings (Synod, 1 March 2024). The campaigners argue, however, that these efforts lack concrete and measurable targets for the Church’s single largest landholding: the Commissioners’ estate.
They say that rewilding 30 per cent of the Church’s land would restore an area 90 times the size of Hyde Park, offering a significant contribution to reversing Britain’s biodiversity crisis. A study by scientists at the Natural History Museum found that the UK ranked among the bottom ten per cent of nations globally for biodiversity, and worst in the G7.
On Friday morning, the letter was handed in to a representative of the Archbishop-designate by Mr Packham, at St Paul’s Cathedral, accompanied by a model ark etched with the names of 105,000 petitioners from the public, supporting the call for rewilding.
Last year, the BBC Springwatch presenter stood outside St Paul’s to display a nine-metre scroll, described as the “95 Wild Theses”, in an allusion to the 95 theses of Martin Luther (News, 11 October 2024). The 95 Wild Theses consisted of 95 messages from a variety of prominent figures, including the former Environment Secretary Michael Gove.
So far, the Commissioners have resisted the call for rewilding 30 per cent of their land, saying that it is not suitable for productive farmland, although campaigners argue that the rewilding could take place on other parts of the estate. Earlier this year, in March, the Commissioners’ head of sustainability for real assets, Paul Jaffe, said: “We are deeply committed to supporting nature through a range of initiatives. We focus on sustainable farming practices, collaborate with organisations like the RSPB and FWAG, and actively integrate biodiversity projects, such as woodland creation and wetland restoration, across our portfolio.”
