Boothby Wildland, Lincolnshire

• Nattergal took ownership of Boothby Wildland, near Grantham Lincolnshire, in December 2021. Taking inspiration from the Knepp Estate in Sussex, Nattergal is a nature restoration company with a mission to “deliver nature recovery at scale to provide vital benefits for society and sustainable financial returns.”
• Previously this 617-hectare, grade 3 soil site was managed intensively for cereal production. It is now being transformed into a landscape of woodland, open grassland, pasture and scrub with restoration of the local floodplain to ease downstream flooding pressures.
• Boothby will be the first Landscape Recovery Pilot to sign a 30-year implementation agreement with DEFRA in May 2025, and is selling both Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) units and ‘Charismatic’ Carbon credits, establishing an exemplar public-private nature finance model.

• Once natural vegetation has had a chance to re-establish here, free roaming herbivores will be introduced to drive natural processes.
• Kick-starter interventions will also be carried out, such as spreading green hay and creating ponds, along with plans to restore the 2 km stretch of the River Glen that runs through the site, which will include the reintroduction of beavers (Castor fiber)

• With a commitment to community engagement and volunteering, Boothby Wildland has a part time Volunteering & Communities Coordinator who supports regular volunteering opportunities and community events.
• Since late 2023, weekly volunteering sessions have been run with a growing number of local volunteers attending regularly to undertake work including green hay spreading, fence building, apple tree grafting, removing tree guards and setting up and monitoring camera traps.
• Free monthly guided walks are provided for the local community, giving residents an opportunity to learn more about the site and ongoing changes to the landscape.
• A number of seasonal events have also been organised, including the reinstatement of a local barn dance at the behest of residents of the closest village of Boothby Pagnell, and a Nature Day during the summer months, to encourage local families to discover and explore the site.
• Regular talks (on and off site) have been provided to local community groups and clubs, including U3A, Rotary Club and local primary schools.
• Early consultation workshops have resulted in changes to site plans, including joining up bridleways and providing up to 6,000m of new routes/paths – increasing access by 30%.
• Volunteers are not only becoming actively engaged in site works but have reported changes in their mental and physical wellbeing after being out in nature.

• The sale of associated Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) units, biodiverse carbon credits, and voluntary biodiversity credits will allow us to make our plans a reality. Boothby Wildland has a number of BNG units for sale, including scrub, grassland, woodland and pond habitats, with river units also being developed.
• Environmental Land Management (ELM) Landscape Recovery scheme funding is also a significant enabler here, demonstrating a blending of public and private finance. Boothby is one of the 21 Landscape Recovery scheme Phase 1 pilots funded through ELM, meaning the project has government backing that will support site activities while natural capital markets and ecotourism are establishing. Part of this funding has enabled Nattergal to complete thorough biodiversity baselining surveys, which will allow us to understand the impact of our interventions over time.

• Nattergal was established to become a world-leading nature restoration company, pioneering the use of private sector investment to help deliver the 30% by 2030 Global Biodiversity Framework goal.
• Nattergal have partnered with the Newt Conservation Partnership and NatureSpace to create and restore ponds on our site, and our growing ecotourism offering, which has included pop-up glamping and camping, rewilding tours and bird ringing experiences.
• Being evidence-led is at the core of how Nattergal operates. Collaboration is also key and we’re always keen to learn from, contribute to, and improve the science of Nature recovery. We work with academics and students from multiple research institutions – including 5 x PHDs currently happening on site!
• Finally, our corporate partnerships are key to the success of the project, providing the essential income from purchases of natural capital. An example is the Arup purchase of 10,000 tonnes of future charismatic carbon from Boothby for £1 million.

There are multiple challenges and risks associated with the Boothby project. Nattergal is currently assessing these at a company and site level through the lenses of the Task Force for Climate and Nature Financial Disclosures (TCFD & TNFD). Key site areas identified, and management activities include:

• Site Level Climate Resilience – as we get warmer summers and wetter winters, Boothby (and all our sites) will be exposed to more extreme variations of weather and both higher flooding and fire risks. We aim to manage these through focusing on natural regeneration – which is inherently more resilient to climate changes – as well as increasing access to water bodies such as ponds, and creating fire breaks where needed. We are delivering river restoration activities and introducing beavers to reduce flowing impacts both on our sites and within our local communities.
• Local Stakeholder Support – vital to the success of Boothby is the support of our various stakeholders, including our local ‘communities of place’ as well as our wider ‘communities of interest. To this end we have developed our Nattergal Best Practice Stakeholder Engagement framework; with academic partners from the Countryside and Community Research Institute (CCRI) at the University of Gloucestershire, and the Leverhulme Centre for Nature Recovery at The University of Oxford. This provides best practice principles that lead our stakeholder engagement activities as described above.
• Market Demand – A key risk is the market demand for the natural capital outputs we create – be they BNG, carbon, voluntary biodiversity credits or otherwise. To mitigate this, Nattergal leads the way in developing robust, high-quality credits that align to all best practices and deliver real, additional and tangible benefits for our local communities and corporate partners.