A grassroots movement to wild a fifth of East Anglia is going national with the launch of Wild Kingdom\u2019s \u201cmap of dreams\u201d to collect pledges and connect communities, businesses and ordinary people seeking to revive nature.<\/p>\n
WildEast<\/a> was formed five years ago<\/a> when three \u201ceco-anxious\u201d farmers decided to commit at least a fifth of their land to nature. Since then, thousands of people have pledged to rewild gardens, school grounds, communities and businesses.<\/p>\n Now the group has created a national version of its map of dreams to encourage more people across Britain to take action to restore nature. Anyone can make a pledge and share pictures, tips and success stories, in what the farmers call digital \u201cwitness statements\u201d to nature recovery.<\/p>\n Hugh Crossley, or Lord Somerleyton, a co-founder of WildEast, said: \u201cWe all have a tremendous debt to nature by way of how we\u2019ve farmed, managed land and consumed. Nature, like us, thrives on the very thing we have deprived it of \u2013 wild space and connectivity.<\/p>\n \u201cWild Kingdom is the next great leap \u2013 one map to bind us all. It isn\u2019t about one person or place, it\u2019s about thousands of acts of care and imagination.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018Nature, like us, thrives on the very thing we have deprived it of \u2013 wild space and connectivity,\u2019 says Hugh Crossley, pictured with Argus Hardy, right. Photograph: Si Barber\/The Guardian<\/p>\n Since founding WildEast with fellow landowners Olly Birkbeck and Argus Hardy, Crossley has turned a quarter of his 2,023-hectare (5,000-acre) estate over to biodiversity, while still producing food, including carbon-negative wheat and fava beans. Alongside this, 904 moth species, 33 red-list bird species and six kinds of endangered amphibians have been recorded across his estate, which includes the Fritton Lake ecotourism business.<\/p>\n There have been plenty of pledges of wildlife action from other quarters too, including Hadleigh high school<\/a> in Suffolk, which is creating a pond and wildlife area in the corner of one of its playing fields. Katy Miller, a modern languages teacher at Hadleigh, said: \u201cThere\u2019s lots of new housing going on around our site so we\u2019re acutely aware that the space for wildlife is shrinking and we need to be doing what we can to rewild.\u201d<\/p>\n An owl swoops along a field on the Somerleyton estate. The estate still produces food including carbon-negative wheat and fava beans. Photograph: Kevin Coote\/Miles Willis<\/p>\n Crossley visited the school recently and Miller said the pupils\u2019 eco team was inspired by Wild Kingdom. \u201cThe eco team don\u2019t want to just talk about it \u2013 they want to be making a difference to nature\u2019s recovery,\u201d she said. \u201cThe more people join together to do it and are inspired to take part hopefully, the more space nature gets, the more connectivity it gets and the more it can recover.\u201d<\/p>\n Victor Hills, 11, a member of the eco team, said: \u201cWe\u2019re very lucky to have two fields and we\u2019ve got funding for a rather large pond and wildlife area. We\u2019re thinking it will help moths, badgers, hedgehogs, fish, frogs.\u201d<\/p>\n Victor said he had been inspired by other nature pledges on Wild Kingdom\u2019s map of dreams. \u201cWhat people are doing with their gardens or the land they own is absolutely stunning. In Britain, if we get to 20% [of land for nature] I don\u2019t think we should stop there. We should get more lakes, more ponds and make more nature areas and open more national parks.\u201d<\/p>\n Farmers have pledged to support WildEast, including Cameron Wheeler, who rents 0.8 hectares on which he produces no-dig vegetables for local veg boxes and restaurants at Five Rod farm<\/a> in Suffolk. \u201cWild Kingdom is very much in line with what I\u2019m doing, trying to make this a more natural space,\u201d said Wheeler, who moved from the music industry to vegetable growing after lockdown. \u201cI\u2019m honoured to be part of it.\u201d<\/p>\n Morning mist on the Somerleyton estate. Thousands of have pledged to rewild gardens, school grounds, communities and businesses since WildEast was set up. Photograph: Miles Willis<\/p>\n Local communities pledging action on the map of dreams include the village of Wenhaston, Suffolk, whose longstanding volunteer group looking after its five commons has expanded its ambitions as Wilder Wenhaston<\/a> in recent years.<\/p>\n Local wildlife spotting turned into a wildlife audit, which identified vital local nature but also spotted struggling once-common species in the village such as frogs, toads and hedgehogs. A notable tree audit identified hitherto unknown ancient oaks.<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n The planet’s most important stories. Get all the week’s environment news – the good, the bad and the essential<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com<\/a> to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy<\/a>. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms of Service<\/a> apply.<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n \u201cIf it ain\u2019t recorded, it doesn\u2019t exist, especially in planning terms,\u201d said Alan Miller, the chair of Wilder Wenhaston.<\/p>\n In recent years, villagers have joined forces with local landowners to plant four new woods, restore two ponds and create a tree nursery at the primary school to provide locally sourced native trees and inspire a new generation of tree-planters. This winter, volunteers will plant 200 metres of new native hedges to link up the woodlands.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you have volunteers that are willing, you\u2019ve got to keep them rolling or else they\u2019ll go off and find something else to do,\u201d Miller said.<\/p>\n He said Wild Kingdom would help more community groups connect, and power more effective grassroots action. \u201cIn conservation we are always looking at what other folk are doing \u2013 someone will come up with a bright idea,\u201d Miller said. \u201cI fear the bigger conservation organisations just get bigger and less effective.\u201d<\/p>\n A horse on the Somerleyton estate. Anyone can make a pledge and share pictures, tips and success stories on the \u2018map of dreams\u2019. Photograph: Richard Allenby-Pratt<\/p>\n Birkbeck, a WildEast co-founder, said: \u201cWildEast is all about the soft tissue that connects up the beating organs of nature recovery \u2013 schoolyards, churchyards, farmyards and people\u2019s gardens.\u201d<\/p>\n