Recording of the "Rewilding The Land & Sea" Event held in Bristol on 7th June
We hosted an inaugural collaboration event between Heal Rewilding, Project Seagrass and ourselves in Bristol on 7th June. This was a wonderful opportunity to hear from some of charities we support as well as see Kelp! a film that we funded after a shout out on the So Hot Right Now! podcast from some Falmouth University students.
Heal Rewilding with Hannah Needham
An introduction to Heal Rewilding from Hannah Needham, Operations Director.
Heal's raises money to buy land and rewild it. Their ambition is to have one new rewilding site in every English county which would restore 10,000 hectares of degraded land for nature.
Due to poor lighting the recording shows only the slides Hannah used but we promise you she was there and gave a fascinating talk!
Foundation Conservation Carpathia (FCC)
Foundation Conservation Carpathia (FCC) was founded in 2009 by 12 philanthropists and conservationists with the goal to stop illegal logging of the woodlands around the Carpathian Mountains in Romania. FCC wish to protect a significant surface of Carpathian forests in form of a completely protected area for future generations. This is achieved by purchasing land and leasing hunting rights for full protection of all natural elements with private and public money. As of mid 2021 FCC have purchased over 25,000 hectares and aim to purchase an additional 10,000 hectares by 2025. They have already reintroduced bison to the region and will start bringing back beavers in late 2021.
Carpathia has a personal connection for us given Elena's home town of Cugir is only a few hours away from the heart of the FCC project.
We were delighted to introduce many of the Bristol audience to their first taste of the wonders of the Carpathian Mountains and to FCC. Many thanks to Barbara Promberger, FCC Co-Founder, for providing us a special interview to introduce the fantastic and inspiring work they do.
"Mess is Best!" - An introduction to WildEdges
Nick introduces "WildEdges", a collaboration between WildEast and the Land App. WildEdges calls on landowners to add a modest amount of regenerating scrub and grass buffers to land edges like hedgerows and Dan Geerah of the Land App shows us what that looks like.
Whilst WildEast’s WildEdges initiative focuses on hedgerows the concept of having messier edges has much broader applications. It is just as important for rivers to have messy edges. Nick gives a quick overview of Beaver Trust and the work they are doing on restoring river buffers. There is more on WildEdges here.
Project Seagrass with Richard Lilley
An introduction to Project Seagrass from Richard Lilley, Founding Director and CEO.
Project Seagrass is an environmental charity devoted to the conservation of seagrass ecosystems through education, influence, research and action. Seagrass meadows are able to store carbon dioxide, which contributes to global heating, at a rate 35 times faster than tropical rainforests. The plant’s ability to remove this gas from the atmosphere makes it a vital tool in fighting the climate crisis. Seagrass currently cover just 0.2% of the seafloor, it absorbs 10% of the ocean’s carbon each year.
Project Seagrass is undertaking critical research to address the significant lack of data in UK on seagrass generally and has a growing number of restoration projects throughout the UK.
Falmouth University Film Class of 2021
Anna Roberts, Director/Producer and Senior Lecturer on Marine & Natural History Film at Falmouth University tells the story of how a shout out from her students on the “So Hot Right Now” podcast led to Consano Earth funding the making of two inspiring ocean rewilding films.
One of these films, “KELP!”, was screened during the Bristol event and follows the journey of a crew of young filmmakers as they sail a rescued wooden boat from Cornwall to Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, meeting the pioneers on the forefront of regenerative ocean farming, diving wild kelp forests and ocean farms along the way. We were joined at the event by filmmaker Caylon La Mantia and many of her team. A lot more on the film is available on a dedicated website here.
