Chris Packham calls on Royal Family to rewild their estates

BBC broadcaster Chris Packham is calling for the Royal Family to rewild their vast estates.

The Springwatch presenter and a group of leading school strikers will tomorrow deliver a 100,000 signature petition directly to Buckingham Palace.

As the Royals own around 1.4 per cent of the UK, an area twice the size of Greater London, he claims this will make a big impact on allowing nature to recover in the UK.

Part of a campaign by pressure group Wild Card, Packham will urge the Royal Family to ‘walk the walk’ on climate action in their own backyard before they appear as our ambassadors at the crucial COP26 climate talks in Glasgow in November.

The Royals own around 1.4 per cent of the UK, an area twice the size of Greater London, Packham claims this will make a big impact on allowing nature to recover in the UK

Both the Queen and Prince Charles will attend the event.

The petition builds on an open letter sent in June by over 100 leading scientists and celebrities – including Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Kate Humble – telling the Royals that NOW is the time to act. 

The Wild Card group said that the Royal estates would naturally feature beavers, wolves, bison, wild boar, pine martens and white storks.

The campaign which is organising the event is calling for 50% of the UK to be fully rewilded. With half of England owned by less than 1 per cent of the population the campaign calls on the UK’s biggest landowners to act first.