Frequently Asked Questions

Nature restoration is the process of helping degraded ecosystems recover so they can support more wildlife, have greater resilience, and provide long-term benefits for people. 

Across the UK, many habitats have been lost, fragmented or heavily modified over time. Nature restoration seeks to reverse this decline by restoring habitats, reconnecting landscapes and allowing natural processes to shape and strengthen ecosystems. 

At Nattergal, we believe successful Nature restoration should deliver measurable benefits for biodiversity, climate and people, creating healthier, more resilient landscapes that can thrive for generations to come.  

We restore degraded landscapes at scale by combining ecological expertise with long-term stewardship. 

Every Wildland is different, but our work can include restoring wetlands and natural hydrology, creating and enhancing habitats, supporting natural regeneration, and reintroducing natural processes where appropriate. 

Rather than managing landscapes towards a fixed endpoint, we create the conditions for Nature to recover and evolve over time. This results in dynamic, diverse habitat mosaics that continue to change in response to wildlife, seasons and natural processes. 

We take a long-term approach, recognising that meaningful Nature recovery happens over decades, not years.  

The UK is ranked one of the most Nature depleted countries in the world. Only around 53% of biodiversity remains intact.  

Restoring Nature helps reverse this decline, creating healthier ecosystems that support a greater abundance and diversity of wildlife, as well as increasing climate resilience, improving wellbeing, and benefitting local communities. It is an investment in a healthier, more sustainable future for both people and the planet. 

Nature restoration can deliver a wide range of benefits. 

For wildlife, it creates more space, food sources and breeding opportunities. 

For the environment, restored ecosystems can improve water quality, increase resilience to flooding and drought, store carbon and support healthier soils. 

For people, Nature-rich landscapes can provide opportunities for education, support with studies and research, volunteering, improve wellbeing and connection with the natural world. 

Our aim is to create thriving landscapes that deliver lasting benefits for biodiversity, climate and local communities.  

No. Nature restoration requires active stewardship and careful monitoring. While natural processes are given more room to operate, we can and should intervene, at least initially. To reversing some of the impacts of historic land management, we carry out kick-starter interventions that help set Nature's recovery in motion. This includes actions such as blocking drainage channels, creating ponds, and sometimes even reintroducing missing species, like beavers. 

Nattergal track changes on our sites over time using a wide range of ecological monitoring techniques. Across our Wildlands, we collect evidence on biodiversity, habitat condition, carbon, water and ecosystem health using methods including camera traps, bioacoustic and audio surveys, manual species surveys, soil sampling, environmental DNA (eDNA) analysis, fixed-point photography, remote sensing, digital water and weather sensors and laboratory analysis. This monitoring is carried out by our in-house team alongside specialist ecologists, researchers and independent experts, and where possible verified by third parties.  

We collaborate closely with universities, students and academic partners, helping to advance understanding of large-scale Nature recovery while ensuring our work is informed by the latest science. At Boothby Wildland alone, our monitoring programme has supported 14 student projects and nine academic research collaborations.  

We believe long-term monitoring is essential because Nature recovery takes time. By collecting data year after year, we can measure trends, adapt our management where needed and transparently report on outcomes. Between 2022 and 2025, our monitoring programme at Boothby Wildland recorded around 1.9 million species observations, contributing to evidence showing a 108% increase in biodiversity and a 22% increase in the number of species detected compared to the baseline.  

You can learn more about our approach and the results so far in the Boothby Wildland Impact Report 2022-2025. 

No. Nature restoration and food production both have important roles to play. 

The UK needs productive farmland, but it also needs healthy ecosystems. We deliberately target sites where food production is either not profitable or where the land cannot grow food fit for human consumption. These areas allow Nature recovery to be delivered without impacting food security.  

Nature restoration can also support farming by improving ecosystem services such as pollination, soil health, water management and flood resilience.  

Not necessarily. In many cases, Nature restoration can create new opportunities for people to engage with the landscape. 

We recognise that local communities have a strong connection to the places around them. That's why we work with local stakeholders and look for opportunities to improve access where appropriate, while balancing the needs of wildlife and sensitive habitats. For example, our latest Boothby Wildland impact report noted we increased public access by 58% in collaboration with the local community. 

Across our Wildlands, we offer tours, educational experiences and opportunities for people to experience Nature recovery first-hand. We want people to feel connected to these landscapes and to be part of their story. 

Nature recovery requires significant long-term funding. 

While government funding, environmental organisations and charities all have important roles to play, the scale of Nature loss means additional investment is needed to restore ecosystems across the UK. 

Private investment helps provide sustainable funding for long-term restoration and stewardship, supporting projects that deliver measurable outcomes for biodiversity, climate and people. 

Nattergal is funding long-term Nature restoration through private finance models, such as Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG), Voluntary Carbon Credits, Voluntary Biodiversity Credits, and more. 

Nattergal funds long-term Nature restoration through private finance models such as Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG), Voluntary Carbon Credits and Voluntary Biodiversity Credits (VBCs).

These mechanisms enable organisations and individuals to invest in measurable environmental outcomes, helping to fund habitat creation, land management, ecological monitoring and species recovery over the long term. For example, in 2025, Arup made a £1 million upfront investment in carbon removal credits from Nattergal's Boothby Wildland, helping to accelerate habitat restoration and deliver wider benefits for biodiversity, climate and local communities. 

Ragwort is a native wildflower and an important source of nectar for many pollinators, including bees, butterflies and other insects. Ragwort contributes to the food web by providing seeds for birds such as chaffinches and goldfinches, while the invertebrates it supports serve as a food source for a variety of birds and small mammals. Ragwort also contributes to soil health, where its roots help build organic matter, improve soil structure and porosity, enhance water retention, and promote stability. 

Like many native species, ragwort plays a role in healthy ecosystems. However, we also recognise concerns around grazing livestock, as ragwort can be harmful if consumed in significant quantities, particularly when present in hay or silage.  

We manage ragwort responsibly and monitor its presence across our sites. Management is guided by local conditions, neighbouring land uses and relevant best-practice guidance, ensuring we balance ecological benefits with our responsibilities as land managers. 

Deer are an important part of many British ecosystems, but in some areas their populations now exceed levels that habitats can naturally support. This is due to the extirpation of their predators, such as wolves, bears and lynx from the UK. 

Without management, high deer numbers can prevent woodland regeneration, damage young trees and reduce the diversity of plants that other wildlife depends upon. 

On all our sites we work with professional deer managers to monitor and, if necessary, cull deer. Where culling takes place, it is always done in accordance with best-practice standards and as part of wider efforts to support healthy, balanced ecosystems. All carcasses are processed and the resulting venison is sold into the food chain, providing a sustainable source of lean, low-cholesterol, red meat. 

Our objective is never to remove deer from the landscape - they are a beautiful and integral part of our native fauna - but to help ensure deer populations and habitats can work together over the long term.