The Broughton Sanctuary Environmental Account spans over 600 ha on the fringe of the Yorkshire Dales National Park. Over centuries, the land was modified into sheep pasture with a small moorland managed for driven grouse shooting. As livestock and game farming expanded, remnant woodlands were reduced to 6% of the estate’s total land area.

In 2016, Broughton began outlining a new philosophy of ecosystem restoration and nature-based enterprise, focused on sustainability, nutrition, wellness retreats, and nature experiences. A wellness centre was created, and its tenet of therapy quickly extended to the land, which was severely ecologically depleted. To put nature on a path to recovery and mitigate flooding in Leeds, nearly 300,000 trees were planted in the wider estate alongside other hydrological naturalisation.

A 600 ha area remains degraded, so Broughton Sanctuary began work with CreditNature and Ecosulis to develop an ambitious landscape-scale rewilding strategy and investment model. Over the past three years, the partnership has baselined ecosystem condition, designed a programme of rewilding activities, and forecasted the impact over a 10-year timeframe. The interventions have been tailored to the landscape in a way that will recover ecosystem function, structure, and resilience.