Charles Burrell
Co-Owner of Knepp Estate
Charlie inherited the 3,500-acre estate from his grandparents in the 1980’s and is the inspiration behind the Knepp Wildland Project. Having run Knepp Home Farm for 20 years, Charlie had a dramatic change of heart after a visit to the Oostvaardersplassen project in Holland in the 1990s and saw the potential for a similar “rewilding” project at home in Sussex.
Charlie is chair of the Romanian rewilding project, Foundation Conservation Carpathia, and is on the board of Rewilding Britain, The Arcadia Fund, Ingleby Farms Environment Committee, the Endangered Landscapes Programme and the Bronze Oak Project.
“Knepp is on heavy clay, and it’s always been a struggle to farm here. With the rewilding project we’re still raising cattle and livestock, only now it’s extensive rather than intensive farming – more like ranching, really – and the animals are driving the great positives like biodiversity, habitat and soil restoration. Because we have no goals or targets, and the project is ‘process-led’, Nature is teaching us. We’re on a thrilling journey. The possibilities are endless, and the relevance to conservation and eco-systems services has never been greater.”
