At Cowdray, individual departments are playing their part in the fight against environmental decline. For example, the farms and woodlands are part of the Countryside Stewardship Scheme which supports landowners to undertake environmental and habitat improvement works and practices.

The Forestry team are carrying out extensive projects to improve and expand the habitats of rare species such as the Pearl-bordered Fritillary Butterfly and the Honey Buzzard, of which there are only 13 known nesting pairs in the country. The team are expanding and connecting habitats across woodlands and other areas of the Estate to increase biodiversity.

Home Farm are already working on the journey to regenerative agriculture with reduced tillage and cover cropping to protect light sandy soils, build organic matter and improve soil health. More trees are being planted where animals graze to ensure they have shade during the hot summers, known as agroforestry. The trees are also being planted to restore historic parklands.

Cowdray also manages parcels of land in environmentally positive ways. Nearly all the arable fields have a six-metre flower rich margin, with some having a strip of wildflowers in the middle. The flower rich margins provide seeds to help feed the birds through the winter and encourages insects which then eat other disease spreading pests which threaten the crops such as aphids. This is called Integrated Pest Management and reduces the need for chemical pesticides.

Manure from the dairy farm is also used on the fields. This is a way of using natural waste as a resource, and animals are being integrated into the crop rotation to further improve soil health. By approaching waste and resources in a different way, Cowdray are creating a more circular economy.

Nick McDonald, Cowdray’s Land and Environment Manager, said: “As land stewards we are acutely aware of the nature around us as have generations before us. With targeted projects and wider landscape scale schemes, we have been working to protect biodiversity for a long time, and we will now accelerate that work.”