Making A Lifelong Commitment To Nature

Sandringham follows in the footsteps of myriad sustainable estates across the country. Jack Watkins goes behind the scenes at some of the most successful

- Jack Watkins

In the early years of the 21st century, the new farming mantras were working closely with Nature, local provenance and diversification. Whether organic or non-organic, all the best examples in the media seemed to emerge from smaller units, partly because they had an inbuilt flexibility lacking in larger, more traditionally run farms and because innovators and new entrants to the industry tend to start from modest beginnings. However, it’s never been true that big is always bad. These larger farms and estates are exemplars of sustainable farm practice.

Glenfeshie, Cairngorms

Danish entrepreneur Anders Holch Povlsen, whose fortune was amassed by building an international fashion business, calls Wildland —a project encompassing several estates— a masterplan to revive the native flora and fauna of the Scottish Highlands, which have been depleted by centuries of overgrazing by sheep and deer (www.wildland.scot). According to him and his wife, Anne, it is: ‘A lifelong commitment… not only for ourselves, but for the Scottish people and Scottish Nature, too.’

At the core of the 220,000 acres of land acquired across 11 estates is his first purchase, Glenfeshie, in the Cairngorms, bought in 2006. ‘Already, we’ve doubled the size of the Caledonian pine forest on the estate to more than 4,000 acres of natural tree regeneration,’ says Thomas MacDonell, director of conservation. ‘This was achieved by culling red deer down to the required density to allow the likes of Scots pine, aspen, bog bilberry and greater woodrush to re-establish themselves.’ An additional 4½ million trees have been planted across the estates to allow future connectivity of habitats and to act as a seed source for the next 200 years.