Trespassing through tightly-guarded country estates, ecologically ravaged grouse moors and empty Mayfair mansions, writer and activist Guy Shrubsole has used these 21st century tools to uncover a wealth of never-before-seen information about the people who own our land, to create the most comprehensive map of land ownership in England that has ever been made public. But with the dawn of digital mapping and the Freedom of Information Act, it’s becoming increasingly difficult for them to hide. For centuries, England’s elite have covered up how they got their hands on millions of acres of our land, by constructing walls, burying surveys and more recently, sheltering behind offshore shell companies. This is the history of how England’s elite came to own our land, and an inspiring manifesto for how to open up our countryside once more. The campaign is calling for the Government to implement a ‘Great British Rainforests Strategy’ that would include a high-level commitment to restoration and sufficient protection of remaining temperate rainforest and funding for the restoration of the habitat.‘A formidable, brave and important book’ Robert Macfarlane Who owns England? Behind this simple question lies this country’s oldest and best-kept secret.
Working with Seahorse Environmental, Guy has evolved this campaign to help increase awareness of Britain’s lost rainforests among the public, Parliament and in Government with coverage of the campaign in The Telegraph, The Guardian and BBC Radio 4.
To compare, just 10% of England and 13% of Britain is currently covered by woodland, and the majority of this is conifer plantations.Īs recent hosts of COP26 and with Ministers becoming increasingly supportive of nature-based solutions, there is no better time for the Government to bring back Britain’s lost temperate rainforests. Historically, temperate rainforests covered a much larger area of Britain and, thanks to our maritime climate, the habitat has the potential to cover 5% of England and 20% of Britain overall. It has since evolved into both a campaign, and a forthcoming book, ‘The Lost Rainforests of Britain’, to be published by William Collins in October 2022.ĭespite their importance and significance, Britain’s temperate rainforests now only remain in fragmented pockets, including in Dartmoor National Park. Lost Rainforests of Britain began as a personal blog written by Guy Shrubsole, author of Who Owns England?.
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