17 July: Benedict McDonald – “Naturally Profitable: Restoring Nature to Farms & Estates”
Benedict Macdonald is a naturalist, conservationist, writer and producer. He has worked on series including The One Show, Springwatch, and The Hunt and as a field director for Netflix’s Emmy-award-winning series, Our Planet. Benedict also directed two BAFTA-nominated wildlife series for Apple TV+. His first book, Rebirding, highlighted the need for mass-scale nature restoration across the UK. It was the winner of the Richard Jefferies Prize and inaugural winner of the Wainwright Prize for Writing on Global Conservation. Ben’s second book, Orchard: A Year in England’s Eden, has also won critical acclaim, and his third book, Cornerstones, was a finalist in the 2022/2023 People’s Book Prize. As a conservationist, Ben has remained at the forefront of public discourse on rewilding, nature restoration, regenerative farming and reintroducing lost species to the UK.
In this talk, Benedict, founder and director of Restore, talks through how nature restoration is now scaling across the UK. He charts the journey the UK is going on, from being one of the most nature depleted countries on Earth, to rapidly restoring large areas of land – as nature restoration becomes more profitable than extractive or intensive farming.
Sharing first hand insights from rewilding estates like Castle Howard, creating a new ‘plain’ in Wiltshire and reintroducing beavers to farms, Benedict gives a unique insight into the workings of a nature restoration business – and how inspirational farmers and landowners are coming together to scale nature’s recovery.
Ben at the Citizen Zoo Rewilding Conference:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1v3NyXsJFPmjcwXHidE9II_CAbzOEBk1L/view?usp=sharing
Ben at the Blue Earth Summit:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1LhEOroLoz5jybcGXCUsCnpcIcrUgfHwt/view?usp=sharing
