Chris Packham calls on Royal Family to rewild estates

Wildlife expert Chris Packham is calling on the Royal Family to conserve nature on their estates and reintroduce animals like beavers and wild boar.

More than 100 children joined Mr Packham in delivering a petition signed by 100,000 people to Buckingham Palace.

Mr Packham told the BBC he wanted the royals to take "more dramatic action", including rewilding.

The Royal Estates said they were always looking for ways to continue improving conservation and biodiversity.

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The children, their parents and other campaigners carried the Wild Card campaign petition calling on the Royal Family to rewild their estates to the palace on Saturday.

They said the Royal Family should lead by example before they appear as ambassadors at the COP26 climate summit in November.

Former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall author Michael Morpurgo, actors Sir Mark Rylance and Josh O'Connor and Packham's wildlife TV colleague Kate Humble are among those to sign the petition.

Mr Packham told BBC Breakfast: "The aim of the petition was to get our Royal Family to think about taking some more dramatic action when it comes to conservation of both the environment and of wildlife at a crucial time given we are in an environment and biodiversity crisis.

"The Royal Family are landowners of some magnitude, they own 800,000 acres of the UK, 1.4% of our land surface."

Speaking later at the "polite protest" outside the Palace in central London, the BBC Springwatch presenter explained rewilding means allowing natural habitats to go back to their natural state.

He said that some of the Royal Family's estate - including the Balmoral estate in Scotland - is currently used for deer stalking and grouse shooting with very few trees.

If it were rewilded, he said it "really would be a temperate rainforest, filled with a much richer diversity of life".

Reflecting on his own role in conservation, he said he felt his "conscience is not clear".

"On my watch as an environmentalist and conservationist I have failed these young people, I have failed to act quickly and broadly enough to prevent the crisis that we find ourselves in," he added.

Mr Packham said rewilding would help the rural economy, and, if the Royal Family supported his call, it would send an important message to the world.

Campaigners said while the average tree coverage is 37% in the European Union, the Duchy of Cornwall estate owned by the Prince of Wales has only 6% tree coverage.

They have said ecologists believe beavers, wolves, bison, wild boar, pine martens and white storks could be introduced if the estates are rewilded, with a call to rewild as much as 50% of the UK over time.

Royal-owned land in the UK includes the Crown Estate and the Duchies of Lancaster and Cornwall.

A Royal Estates spokesperson said the Royal Family have a proud history, over 50 years, of getting involved in conservation and are always looking for new ways to further that work.