Conservationist Isabella Tree: ‘Rewilding is vital for the

The farmer and author on allowing nature to transform and restore our ecology – and how the best way to measure progress is through dung beetles

At lunch in Hove, a block back from the seafront, on the first summery day of the year, Isabella Tree is explaining the phrase that best describes her work: “Don’t just do something, stand there.”

The phrase captures the philosophy behind rewilding, the movement that the happily named Tree has done so much to pioneer, with her husband, Charlie Burrell, on the 1,400 acres of land they own at Knepp in Sussex. The essence of their project has been to undo the damage of decades of intensive farming by working with the environment, rather than against it.