Giving Can Be a Force for Change, Starting at Rothbury Estate
August 14, 2026
Northumberland sunset, photo by Gaisarix, CC BY-SA 4.0 / Wikimedia Commons
Scientists estimate that if 30 percent of the planet’s oceans, lands, and freshwaters were to be given back to Nature by 2030, the biodiversity crisis and climate change carbon crisis could be halted. This is a challenge, but to me it is wonderful news because from my little corner of the world, I believe it can be done! It has been said somewhere, “There’s no such thing as no way out.”
Quite simply, I believe a major way forward is for people to give money. After all, these issues are caused by money, when it boils down to it: Money is the problem, so it can be the solution too. Capitalism not fought but transformed.
Around the world at any given time there are appeals where wildlife charities ask for donations, often specifically to buy degraded or threatened land, protect it, and rewild it. There are other ways to help save the planet, but this one I find the most fulfilling — a conflict- and frustration-free way that always brings results. No waiting for governments to act, just quietly getting on with it. There are many exciting and achievable opportunities to support conservation and rewilding projects that could use support.
Whitelee Moor National Nature Reserve, photo by Richard Webb, CC BY-SA / Wikimedia Commons
The Opportunity at Rothbury
Here in the UK, the Rothbury Estate is for sale, making it a landmark scenario for rewilding and charity fundraising. It covers 9,400 acres and is sandwiched between two pieces of land that are already nature reserves. If purchased and protected, it would create a wildlife corridor of 40 miles across northern England, stretching from Druridge Bay in the east to the Scottish-English border at Kielderhead and Whitelee Moor National Nature Reserves. The Rothbury Estate is at the heart of this future connected network of habitats and vital to allow wildlife to move through the landscape.
Simonside, Northumberland, photo by Graeme Darbyshire, CC BY 2.0 / Wikimedia Commons
The estate’s uplands are home to curlews, snipe, and lapwings, and its woodlands provide a refuge for red squirrels, endangered in Great Britain. In spring, skylarks sing high in the air as they mark out their territories and try to attract a mate. In summer, flowers such as harebell, wild thyme, devil’s-bit scabious, maiden pink, rockrose, and mountain pansy bring color to the grasslands. Salmon and critically endangered eels swim in the estate’s rivers, and its riverside woodlands support rare summer breeding birds such as wood warbler, redstart, and pied flycatcher. In the future, we could see secretive pine martens moving softly through the forests, majestic golden eagles soaring above the iconic Simonside Hills, and the return of European bison.
Red squirrel, photo by Jonny Gios / Unsplash
Owned by the Dukes of Northumberland and previously managed mostly for grouse shooting, the Rothbury Estate has a price tag of $40 million USD and a September deadline to raise the money. The Northumberland Wildlife Trust is hoping to purchase the estate with donations from the public. The plan would be for species to return, use the corridor, and for regenerative farming across the whole site. There is a lot of support for this but also opposition from traditional farmers and the field sports lobby. Learn more about the project and make a contribution here.
If we can raise the funds and the project succeeds, I wonder if it may radically change people’s perceptions. Such a large piece of land like this has not been rewilded in the UK. When land is rewilded and becomes self-willed, something else happens: The land speaks back. Preserving land on a scale like Rothbury could turn a tide where people want more and there is no turning back.
Coquet River near Rothbury, photo by Sketyl none, CC BY 2.0 / Wikimedia Commons
Keeping a Charity Giving Diary
I think of tithing, a spiritual practice where one gives a small portion of their income to charity; 10 percent is generally recommended. Tithing is centered on giving to the church, but it could be for any cause someone is passionate about.
Two years ago, I decided to start a charity diary of everything given to wildlife organizations. It features how much the donation was, the date contributed, what it was for, and to what charity. I look for the most exciting and innovative projects. One of the first was to help purchase Strawberry Hill, a 377-acre farm that was one of the first rewilding experiments in the UK to be given back to Nature. The land had come up for sale, and a charity, the Bedfordshire Wildlife Trust, was appealing for donations to buy it and keep it wild. I kept donating, and the wildlife charity sent me a thank-you card that the land was indeed acquired.
Jabiru, photo by Andreas Trepte, CC BY-SA 4.0 / Wikimedia Commons
Different projects come to my notice all the time. With my modest budget, I donate to charities in the UK to buy land for rewilding projects and regenerate ancient woodlands, but sometimes charities appeal for money to buy land in faraway places like the Amazon — and often there are business sponsors or philanthropists who double or even quadruple the donation. Over the course of two months, with six separate donations, I was able to personally help the Rainforest Trust secure 105 acres of rainforest in the Brazilian Pantanal’s Taqueri Wetlands State Park.
More broadly, charity giving is still very much anthropocentric; the top donations go to the charities exclusively working for humans, health, education, etc. This is symptomatic of the still-dominant mindset we collectively inhabit. If this pattern of giving could change and evolve — and it becomes clear that everything is connected with our well-being wholly entangled with the well-being of everything else in Nature, affecting our mental, spiritual, and physical health — then charity giving too could evolve to rewild the whole world.
