Project Summary
Boothby Wildland (Boothby) is a 617-hectare site in Lincolnshire that was formally a Grade 3 intensive arable farm. Nattergal purchased the land, its first site, in December 2021 and has staggered its retreat from arable farming, with the last harvest taking place in September 2024. Nattergal’s vision for the site includes natural colonisation, free-roaming herbivores and restored natural hydrology. Nattergal plans to use nature market revenue streams to transform the site, primarily through the sale of Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) units, and ‘charismatic’ carbon credit sales. Notably, Nattergal has already sold 10,000 tCO2e carbon units under the Wilder Carbon Standard at £100 a tonne. This sale will lead to the restoration of 67.5 hectares of ecologically degraded land at Boothby, with the credits being secured over 50 years. Boothby is also a Round 1 Landscape Recovery Project and was the first to be offered an Implementation Agreement from Defra, which will support wider community benefits over 30 years.