25,000 donors from 50 countries raise £30m to buy Northumberland estate for nature

For nearly 800 years, the Rothbury Estate in Northumberland belonged to one of England's most powerful noble families. On Friday, it passed into the hands of the public — or as close to that as land can get — after more than 25,000 people from 50 countries donated £17 million toward a £30 million purchase price, completing what conservationists are calling one of the most ambitious nature recovery projects ever attempted in England.

The Wildlife Trusts and Northumberland Wildlife Trust announced they had sealed the deal on the 9,500-acre (3,800-hectare) estate — an area the size of central London, or Athens, depending on which source you prefer — making it England's largest single land acquisition for conservation in more than 30 years, according to the Guardian.

The Wildlife Trusts called for your support and you answered in your thousands. The appeal to secure the future of The Rothbury Estate in Northumberland has been successful and now the opportunity to bring the vision of a landscape where nature and people thrive side by side can become a reality. This will be a place where nature, community, farming and heritage can combine to create something very special for generations to come.— Sir David Attenborough, President Emeritus, the Wildlife Trusts

The Percy family — the Dukes of Northumberland — had owned the estate since the 13th century, using it most recently for grouse shooting until 2022, according to AFP. The current duke's son, Max Percy, put it up for sale in 2023, citing the difficulty of managing it from his home in southern England, and agreed to give the Wildlife Trusts two years to raise the funds.

The fundraising campaign, launched two years ago, drew support from donors in Finland, Barbados, Kenya, New Zealand and dozens of other countries, according to Countryfile. But the grassroots character of the effort was just as visible locally: Northumberland tea company Ringtons, the Rothbury Women's Institute, a music shop called Curvy Sounds, and a 50-member cycling club called the Cycling Cranks all raised funds, according to ChronicleLive.

As a family business, we understand better than most that some things are worth protecting for generations to come. This campaign aligns perfectly with the aims of The Ringtons Environmental Fund specifically established to support causes that are good for the planet. We hope this gift helps ensure Rothbury is still standing, wild and beautiful, for our grandchildren's grandchildren.— Colin Smith, fourth-generation director, Ringtons

The public's £17 million was supplemented by a £5 million grant from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, a pledge of £1.94 million from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), and contributions from the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, the Monday Charitable Trust, the Samworth Foundation, and a number of anonymous philanthropists, according to ChronicleLive and the Guardian.

The estate itself is a layered mosaic of habitats. Its moorlands shelter curlews, lapwings, and mountain bumblebees. Its woodlands provide refuge for endangered red squirrels, cuckoos, and the merlin — the UK's smallest falcon. A critically endangered species of eel lives in the estate's rivers alongside salmon, while skylarks fly overhead, according to the Good News Network. The estate also contains the Simonside hills, an iron-age hill fort at Lordenshaws, and one of the largest clusters of ancient cup-and-ring marked rocks in England, according to the Guardian.

The Wildlife Trusts' central ambition is to make the Rothbury Estate the 'beating heart' of a 40-mile nature corridor stretching from Druridge Bay on the Northumberland coast inland to the Kielderhead and Whitelee Moor national nature reserves near the Scottish border, according to the Guardian. The estate had previously divided this 'moor to mar' ecosystem; its acquisition closes that gap.

We are absolutely elated, it has been a long haul and it hasn't all been easy. The other word is humbled. There was £17m from the public to make this happen and that is at the forefront of my mind – we've got to honour that support and make sure that people come here and really enjoy getting close to wildlife.— Mike Pratt, chief executive, Northumberland Wildlife Trust

Pratt told the Guardian the trust hopes to expand populations of species already present — mountain bumblebees, red squirrels, curlews — and potentially reintroduce others. 'We should have water voles in this landscape,' he said. 'Maybe we can help bring them back. Pine martens are making their own way back, maybe we can encourage them.' The trust also wants to encourage the roughly dozen farmers on the estate, mainly sheep farmers, to adopt more environmentally friendly practices using fewer pesticides and chemical fertilisers, according to AFP.

The acquisition carries political weight too. The UK government flagged the Rothbury Estate at COP17 as important to its '30by30' commitment — a global target to protect 30 percent of land and sea for nature by 2030 — a goal the UK is currently far from meeting, according to Countryfile and AFP.

Not all reactions have been positive. Some farmers have called the project a 'folly.' Guy Renner-Thompson, a councillor and chair of Northumberland Conservatives, questioned the government's decision to contribute public funds, saying farmers on the estate had 'already raised concerns about food production, changes to traditional land management and whether their businesses can remain profitable,' according to the Guardian. Pratt said the trust had been working closely with farmers and wants to 'demonstrate that you can have lots of wildlife and still have a productive business model.'

On the ground, work has already begun. Volunteers are conducting eco-acoustic monitoring, walking miles across the estate through shoulder-high bracken to install and retrieve devices that record the sounds of small mammals and bats. Earthworm counts to assess soil health are planned within a fortnight, according to the Guardian. The trust says citizen-science initiatives and volunteering schemes will expand as the project develops.

Together, we have secured the future of The Rothbury Estate. Working alongside local communities, farmers and fellow land managers who know and care for this landscape so deeply, we can help this special place continue to thrive for generations to come. This is just the beginning.— Craig Bennett, chief executive, The Wildlife Trusts

Why it matters — The Rothbury acquisition is England's largest conservation land purchase in over three decades and, if the 40-mile nature corridor is realised, could become a template for how public crowdfunding, government grants, and local communities can together reverse wildlife decline at landscape scale.

Reported by goodnewsnetwork.org, afp.com, theguardian.com, yahoo.com, chroniclelive.co.uk, northumberlandgazette.co.uk, countryfile.com