If ‘God is green’, then the Church needs to move fast to save the planet

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In the midst of the climate and nature crisis, what would Jesus do if he owned 105,000 acres (60,000 football pitches) of land? Would he farm it for profit, or would he choose to rewild it, bringing wetlands, peatlands and forests back to life?

This is the conundrum faced by the Church of England’s wealthy and secretive investment arm, the Church Commissioners, which oversees a staggering portfolio of land and property valued at over £10.3bn, making it one of the UK’s largest landowners. After a summer of silent skies and missing butterflies, the consequences of what such massive landowners decide to do now will be felt by us all.

It’s for this reason that this week I’m launching a new campaign with the rewilding movement Wild Card, calling on this ancient landowner to do its bit for the national effort and rewild 30 per cent of its land by 2030.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, recently stated that “God is green, and He calls on us to be green” – however, from the data available it would appear that much of the Church Commissioners’ land is in fact in a dire ecological state.

Stretching from Devon to County Durham, the Church Commissioners’ land spans a vast area measuring three times the size of Birmingham. This land is – albeit with the occasional nature reserve dotted here and there – managed almost entirely as a moneymaking enterprise, funding the running of the Church and the pensions of some of its clergy.

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Shockingly, over half of the Commissioners’ Sites of Special Scientific Interest (the highest designation for natural sites in Britain) are in “unfavourable condition”, and independent research has shown that its English land has just 4 per cent tree coverage, making it 70 per cent less wooded than the UK’s already dire national average of 13 per cent. This places it last amongst England’s top 10 landowners for tree coverage.

The Church Commissioners has made some positive gestures, such as establishing a 100-acre nature reserve along the River Wye. But it is lagging behind almost all other institutional landowners in the UK – something that risks making Archbishop Welby’s words ring rather hollow.

The depletion of the Church Commissioners’ land presents Archbishop Welby and the Church with both an enormous responsibility and an extraordinary opportunity to be leaders in the great historic task of our times: rewilding the world.

Because here’s the really positive part: despite its slow progress on nature, the Church Commissioners has in fact already shown itself to be one of the bravest institutions when it comes to climate. Inspired by an incredible grassroots movement from inside the Church, led by groups such as Operation Noah, Christian Climate Action and A Rocha, last year the Commissioners pledged to divest from fossil fuels.

This bold move brought it in line with the Paris Agreement, which I applaud. But there’s an equally crucial United Nations goal that I and nearly 80,000 people are today imploring them to meet: the commitment to protect 30 per cent of land and seas for nature by 2030.

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This UN goal, known as the Kunming-Montreal framework, is the bare minimum nature needs to survive, but with less than 3 per cent of England currently adequately protected for nature, this is going to take an unprecedented effort from every landowner in the country – after all, 27 per cent of England is not going to rewild itself by accident!

And that’s why I’m calling on Justin Welby and the Church Commissioners to meet the 30x30 on Church land. Not only because this alone could create an area of nature measuring 90 times the size of Hyde Park, but because it would also send a powerful message to the country at large and to religious communities around the world, that now is the time to act.

In the last few years we have seen the unparalleled benefits of rewilding for nature, the climate, employment, and people’s physical and mental health. And we know that rewilding, when planned properly, poses no threat to the UK’s food or timber security, especially when done on medium-to-low grade farmland, of which the Church Commissioners own enough to easily reach 30x30.

So, in this time of heart-wrenching decline and extinction, I’m begging the Church not to hide behind tired arguments against rewilding, but to grab this opportunity to be nature heroes with both hands.

Jesus was a radical who loved creation. I have no doubt that today, he would have been a radical rewilder too.