Rewild your lands ma’am, campaigners urge Britain’s Queen Elizabeth before COP26 summit
- Chris Packham, a well-known conservationist, along with several hundred children marched to Buckingham Palace to deliver a petition signed by 100,000 people
- The Queen, Prince Charles and Prince William are among royals who will attend the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow in November
Environmental campaigners urged Britain’s Queen Elizabeth and other royals on Saturday to commit to rewilding their vast estates – from planting more trees to going organic – as Scotland prepares to host the COP26 global climate conference.
Chris Packham, a well-known conservationist and broadcaster, along with several hundred schoolchildren and a jazz band marched through central London to Buckingham Palace to deliver a petition signed by 100,000 people.
“We are very politely … asking them to change their (estate management) practices and if they could announce that before COP it would send out a brilliant message across the world,” Packham told Sky News.
“This is not the time for talking about doing things any more, this is the time to actually do them, so whilst they are saying the right things … what better place to do the right thing than in your very own, very large, backyard.”
Rewilding is a conservation effort aimed at restoring natural processes and wilderness areas, and Packham said a transition on royal estates would involve using only organic materials, more tree planting and a reduction in deer numbers to allow regeneration.