{"id":21946,"date":"2022-11-10T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-11-09T23:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/?post_type=purple_issue&p=21946"},"modified":"2022-11-21T10:23:26","modified_gmt":"2022-11-21T09:23:26","slug":"the-king-of-conservation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/2022\/11\/10\/the-king-of-conservation\/","title":{"rendered":"The king of conservation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
KING CHARLES III<\/span><\/strong><\/h5>\n\n

King Charles III is one of the great environmentalists of our time \u2013 but does his accession put that vital work at risk? <\/p>\n\n

By <\/em>JAMES FAIR <\/strong><\/p>\n\n

\"\"
Charles, then Prince, at a plaque unveiling in the Lake District National Park <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

IN 2012, JULIA AGLIONBY \u2013 A LAND agent with an interest in how common land can be managed for the benefit of people and wildlife \u2013 was invited to meet the then-Prince of Wales. At that time, her friends Hazel and Joe Relph were accustomed to hosting the Prince once a year at their Cumbrian bed and breakfast and farm, and as he learnt about the issues affecting the Lake District\u2019s famous uplands, he itched to get involved. <\/p>\n\n

The Prince confided in Julia that he was tired of representing different organisations that were often at loggerheads with each other. \u201cHe told me, \u2018They agree on most things, and if they worked on the things they agree on rather than arguing about the things they disagree on, we\u2019d make an awful lot more progress,\u2019\u201d Julia recalls. <\/p>\n\n

As a result of this conversation, the Prince became a patron of the Foundation for Common Land, where Julia is the executive director, and he has been working for it \u2013 largely beyond the gaze of the media or public \u2013 ever since. <\/p>\n\n

And he\u2019s not, as you might expect, just a name on the website \u2013 the new King Charles III has been closely involved in helping the foundation deliver its goals enhancing biodiversity in upland commons, while also making sure they work for people. <\/p>\n\n

In 2019, for example, the Prince was instrumental in pulling together some of Britain\u2019s most senior conservationists and farmers\u2019 leaders for a meeting in Ambleside. They included Beccy Speight (now chief executive of the RSPB, then of the Woodland Trust) and Hilary McGrady, director-general of the National Trust, as well as representatives from government, the NFU and major landowners such as United Utilities. <\/p>\n\n

AT THE TIME, AN ARGUMENT was raging (and still is) about whether the Lake District should be treated as a cultural or natural landscape \u2013 whether it should be farmed intensively for sheep or whether more space should be made for nature. Julia and the Prince of Wales thought it could and should be both, and they wanted these groups to agree to seek restoration of wildlife within the farmed setting of the Cumbrian fells.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cAs a result of his involvement, we agreed a communiqu\u00e9 that was adopted by the Lake District National Park Authority,\u201d Julia explains. \u201cHis expectations were very high \u2013 that people turned up, worked hard and came to an agreement. And the great thing is, we can hold them to it.\u201d <\/p>\n\n

This sort of work doesn\u2019t generate headlines. It doesn\u2019t have the razzle dazzle of a big international climate change conference, at which the King spoke last year, nor does it court controversy, as he has in previous decades with comments about GM crops or modern architecture. But it is the true coal face of conservation \u2013 people who have a stake in land agreeing how it will be managed, now and in the future. In many ways, there is nothing more important, both in Britain and across the world.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

IT IS EXTREMELY COMPLEX. IT INVOLVES not just accepting people\u2019s stake in the land and the inevitable compromises between managing for those people and nature, but also taking into account issues such as food security and climate change. \u201cHe doesn\u2019t shy away from difficult issues,\u201d says Julia. \u201cHe recognises the complexity of the countryside and the fact that we ask so much of it in a very populated country such as Britain.\u201d This is confirmed by the veteran environmental journalist Geoffrey Lean who has written extensively about the royal family\u2019s involvement with all manner of wildlife conservation and broader issues, and met both the new King and his father, the late Duke of Edinburgh, on numerous occasions. \u201cHe worked incredibly hard to get to the bottom of each subject,\u201d Geoffrey says. \u201cHe often worked past midnight, and there are stories about staff finding him slumped on his desk with Post-It notes stuck to his face.\u201d <\/p>\n\n

Craig Bennett, now chief executive of The Wildlife Trusts, but who previously worked for the Prince of Wales\u2019s Corporate Leaders Group (CLG), which brings business leaders together to tackle climate change, says the King has real passion for the issue and reads widely around the subject. \u201cI find it kind of annoying that I work on these issues full time and have done for more than 25 years, and yet when I meet him he can still surprise me with something he\u2019s read that I haven\u2019t heard about,\u201d Craig says. <\/p>\n\n

He has been prescient too, highlighting the health risks of air pollution in a speech he gave as long ago as 1970, and talking about the importance of peatbogs in the 1980s. \u201cHe likened the UK\u2019s lowland peatbogs to tropical rainforests, and he was slightly mocked for it at the time, but as time has gone by it\u2019s been shown to be accurate,\u201d Craig points out. \u201cAt the time, companies dismissed the idea that they were important in the context of climate change, but now we know they\u2019re more important than forests [as carbon stores].\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\n

\"\"
National Insect Week in the garden of Clarence House <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

BRITAIN\u2019S NEW HEAD OF STATE is probably best known for promoting organic farming. His Gloucestershire-based Home Farm acquired organic status in the 1980s, and he subsequently launched a range of organic products which earned him the outraged tabloid headline \u201cA Shop-Soiled Royal!\u201d Sales of his Duchy Originals products have exceeded \u00a31 billion and raised more than \u00a327 million for his charitable work, he told an audience at an awards ceremony in 2019. <\/p>\n\n

\"\"
Harmony has been translated into many languages <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n

Patrick Holden, an organic farmer for nearly 50 years who set up the Sustainable Food Trust in 2010, advised the prince on converting Home Farm. \u201cIf you did a global survey, among people who know about this issue, about who is the most influential person who has shown leadership in the field of sustainable agriculture, King Charles would top the poll,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n\n

Natural England chair Tony Juniper \u2013 who collaborated with the Prince of Wales on his 2010 book Harmony <\/em>\u2013 argues that the now King has touched on all the most important environmental issues. He reels off the list \u2013 disappearing wildlife, pollution, food and water security, climate change, rainforests, the circular economy, sustainability and plastic waste in our oceans, as well as organic agriculture. <\/p>\n\n

\u201cThe most important thing he has done is to highlight how they are not separate, but faces of the same thing,\u201d Tony says. We must shift our collective world view from one of seeing ourselves outside of nature to one where we understand that \u201cour society, our economy and our very civilisation are all embedded in the biosphere and that we have to sustain that biosphere in order to sustain human wellbeing. That environmental insight is his biggest contribution.\u201d <\/p>\n\n

In more than 50 years of being involved with the environmental movement, King Charles has inevitably come under criticism. By convention, the monarch is politically neutral, as is any member of the immediate royal family. But Charles has repeatedly tested this by lobbying the government on a plethora of issues. <\/p>\n\n

\"\"
A visit to the Millennium Seed Bank at Wakehurst <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

\u201cI work on these issues full time, and yet when I meet him he can still surprise me with something he\u2019s read\u201d <\/p>CRAIG BENNETT, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OF THE WILDLIFE TRUSTS<\/strong><\/span><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n

<\/p>\n\n

Should he have got involved in controversial debates such as the genetic modification of crops? His opposition was partly rooted in a belief that humans were involving themselves in something that was properly the responsibility of God, an arguably unscientific viewpoint from a man who generally prides himself on following the science. But he was also concerned about the power and influence of multinationals. <\/p>\n\n

More recently, some conversationists have highlighted the royal family\u2019s failure to match their words with how they manage their land (see our feature on this topic at bitly.ws\/vuhm<\/a>). Much of the criticism centres on their penchant for game bird and deer shooting, activities that many people argue do not allow for ecological regeneration. <\/p>\n\n

\"\"
Some argue that intensive sheep grazing is detrimental to wildlife in the Lake District <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n

BUT THERE IS ALSO THE stewardship of the Duchy of Cornwall, which has now passed to the King\u2019s son, Prince William. A considerable amount of its land is rented out for unsustainable, intensive sheep farming, according to Joel Scott-Halkes of the environmental pressure group Wild Card, and tree coverage is only 6 per cent, compared to an average of 38 per cent across the EU.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

\u201cHis support for ecologically devastating, low-yield sheep farming across Dartmoor \u2013 where rare temperate rainforest could and should grow \u2013 is no different from [former Brazilian president Jair] Bolsonaro supporting cattle ranching in the Amazon,\u201d Joel says. <\/p>\n\n

In Kent, the Duchy of Cornwall, meanwhile, has come under fire because of plans for a new town comprising 2,500 homes on the edge of Faversham. Environmental campaigner Beccy Smart says the development will swamp the area and reduce Britain\u2019s food security by building over grade-one farmland. <\/p>\n\n

\u201cI was really dismayed to find that the Duchy of Cornwall was behind this trashing of farmland and nature,\u201d Beccy says. \u201cDisbelief really. I have always been a big fan of Charles and support the royal family, but you cannot be an environmentalist if you are building over green fields because that completely destroys what he stands for.\u201d <\/p>\n\n

Craig Bennett argues that if there\u2019s one thing that a constitutional monarchy can rightly highlight in the course of its work, then it\u2019s the environment. \u201cThis is an issue that isn\u2019t always dealt with brilliantly by politics, which moves in short-term electoral cycles,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s not controversial any more, there\u2019s widespread cross-party support, but sometimes governments find it harder than they should to move forward on it.\u201d <\/p>\n\n

Craig says there\u2019s a case to be made that our new monarch has been, over the past five decades, the most significant environmentalist the world has known. \u201cAt some point, King Charles has had a role in moving the debate on with every one of the major environmental issues,\u201d he says. That\u2019s quite an accolade from a campaigner who has himself played a major role in shaping Britain\u2019s environmental movement, and one which \u2013 whatever your views on the monarchy are \u2013 is surely hard to refute. <\/p>\n\n

<\/div>
\n
WHAT NOW FOR KING CHARLES? <\/span><\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
What he has said <\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt will no longer be possible for me to give so much of my time and energies to the charities and issues for which I care so deeply. But I know this important work will go on in the trusted hands of others.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n
What this means <\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n

Most commentators believe he was mainly referring to his son Prince William, the new Prince of Wales. He has already shown an interest in issues such as the illegal trade in wildlife, and is now starting to take on the issue of climate change. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n
What experts say <\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n

Many environmentalists point out that there is no reason why King Charles needs to bow out from the debate entirely. The late Queen Elizabeth set a precedent by addressing the COP26 climate change conference last year, making a passionate plea for world leaders to address the issue for the benefit of future generations. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section>\n\n

<\/p>\n\n

\n\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n
ABOUT THE AUTHOR <\/span><\/strong><\/h5>\n\n

James Fair writes about wildlife conservation and broader environmental issues for a wide range of publications, including <\/span>BBC <\/em>Wildlife, <\/em>where he spent 18 years as commissioning editor. Read more of his work at <\/span>jamesfairwildlife.co.uk<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

<\/p>\n\n

PHOTOS: MICHAEL DUNLEA\/NEWSPHOTO\/ALAMY, CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: ANWAR HUSSEIN\/GETTY; JIM HOLDEN\/ALAMY; ANWAR HUSSEIN\/GETTY; CLYNT GARNHAM AGRICULTURE\/ALAMY<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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