Wilder Kent 2030 Strategy

We must act now at a significantly increased scale of action given the interlinked nature and climate emergency that is upon us. Globally and nationally wild animals and plants are in steep decline. We are reaching critical tipping points around this loss of nature as well as around climate change. Human society cannot prosper without healthy natural systems. There is no economy without nature.

The fate of future generations hangs in the balance. Nature-based Solutions (NbS) like natural flood management courtesy of beavers, or carbon lock-up via restoration of native habitats are a critical part of the solution. Wildlife must be restored to much higher levels to retain critical ecosystem services like pollination, and we can no longer allow common things to become rare.

Kent Wildlife Trust Group ’s mission to work with people to restore, save and enhance our natural heritage has never been more important or more urgent.

A Wilder Kent 2030 Vision

Where nature is in recovery and being valued as a critical human life support system.

Overall Impact Measure

30% of Kent’s land and sea displaying increased climate resilience & containing abundant wildlife.

Strategic Goals

WE DEFEND AND RESTORE

Ensure that KWTG is delivering the highest possible impact in the face of habitat loss and climate change.

2 GOAL 1 GOAL

Double the area of land and sea under nature +ve KWT ownership and influence.6

Action Now

We recognise the urgency of our mission and will take action now based on first principles and calculated risk.

WE INSPIRE AND COLLABORATE

Build a groundswell of support for Wilder Kent 2030: scaling-up our engagement to reach a larger, more diverse range of people.

Measures of Success

3 GOAL

WE STRENGTHEN AND GROW Diversify KWTG’s income sources and strengthen its systems, whilst operating sustainably.

3.i

25% of Kent’s population taking meaningful action for a Wilder Kent.

Learning by Doing

A minimum £400K annual surplus being generated and reinvested in achieving our vision by 2025.7

Operating Principles

Communicating Impact

We will remain agile to adopt new learning as we go, innovating and continuously improving our action through the convergent application of evidence.

We will continuously measure and communicate our impact, demonstrating our learning journey through the impact we achieve.

3.ii

Minimise operational GHG emissions.8

Scaling Impact

We recognise that we can’t do this alone. We will scale our impact by working with others to create a virtuous circle of success.

To achieve Wilder Kent 2030’s vision of nature in recovery and being valued as a critical human life support system, we need more land under our direct management, as well as greater influence over a larger geographic area where we can ensure the greatest possible conservation impact.

We will use NbS finance to pay for the doubling of our own landholdings by 2030, and their subsequent long-term management. We will partner with others to extend this approach to an equivalent area of land and sea beyond our estate.

The main strategic focus for KWTG must, therefore, be on acquiring and restoring new degraded land as well as better protecting healthy habitats. And, we can only achieve this scale if we publicly aspire to a higher level of impact and demonstrate that we can really deliver to this agenda. Doing this will motivate more people to support us and work with us, enabling us to scale our funding and create a virtuous circle of success.

How we operate

Land Acquisition and Management

Climate change

Scaling impact

Directly and in partnership with others, to achieve 30% for nature

Learning by doing

Action and innovation

Habitat loss and degradation

Naturebased Solutions

Finance to establish restoration and provide money for long-term management

Wilding

For climate resilience via natural process re-instigation

Lack of consistent supportive policy frameworks

Nature undervalued

Measuring and communicating impact

Scaling our conservation operations to manage a larger landholding without unsustainable numbers of staff will be achieved by re-establishing natural processes via the introduction of natural engineers that catalyse greater species richness and/ or abundance, for example beavers, bison and boar.

This more hands-off approach is “wilding”: KWTG’s delivery mechanism of choice for NbS-scaled conservation. Natural processes will maximise potential climate adaptation for wildlife, preserving ecosystem function for people, and in doing so will help make Kent more ecologically, economically, and socially resilient (as per Fig. 1).

Globally and nationally, wild animals and plants are in steep decline. We are reaching critical tipping points around this loss of nature as well as around climate change.

We must act now to adapt and increase resilience.

Double the area of land and sea under nature +ve KWT ownership and influence.6

Group Roles in Achieving Success

Where nature is in recovery and being valued as a critical human life support system.

3.i

3.ii

25% of Kent’s population taking meaningful action for a Wilder Kent.

Kent Wildlife Trust

Parent charity for Group focussed on:

• Acquisition & long-term conservation management of landholdings in Kent.

• Advocacy for wildlife including opposition to damaging development

• Charitable (primary purpose fundraising)

• Operational support for Group

Kent Wildlife Enterprises

Commercial subsidiary focussed on:

• Non “primary purpose” trading

• Generating commercial income as operational support for Group

A minimum £400K annual surplus being generated and reinvested in achieving our vision by 2025.7

Wilder Carbon

National not-for-profit subsidiary of KWT focussed on:

• Securing new land, paid for through Carbon Finance for KWT

• Strategic relationships including with corporates from Kent and beyond Kent

• Direct income generation through innovation of new national product

ENVIRONMENT AL CONSULT ANTS

Adonis Blue Environmental

Commercial consultancy focussed on:

• Working on commercial projects to derive the highest possible standard of biodiversity

2 1 3.i 3.ii 2 1 3.i 3.ii 2 3.i

FIG

Although the whole of KWTG contributes to achieving Wilder Kent 2030, Kent Wildlife Trust has a specific role as the parent charity, whilst it, and its commercial trading subsidiary KWE, are more county-focussed than that of some of its subsidiaries – which deliberately allow the Group to operate beyond its borders.

Each subsidiary has its own Business and/ or Delivery Plan that defines its niche within the Group and its role in delivering Wilder Kent 2030, as summarised in Fig.2 against KWTGs “Organisational Measures of Success”.

We need the to deliver Wilder Kent 2030 best possible team

We actively encourage and promote diversity, ensure all voices are heard and included and are commi ed to equal opportunities for all

We make change in a fast-moving world

COURAGEOUS COLLABORATE

Working together successfully across teams, departments, parent charity and subsidiaries means everyone across the Group adopts the high-level performance based, impactfocussed culture.

Our promise to all KWTG staff is that they will be rewarded for the effort they put into maintaining this culture. KWTG aims to be a class-leading employer of choice for those who want to make a real, measurable difference in the Nature and Climate Crises.

We expect the best from our staff and our staff can expect the best from us. We need the best possible team to deliver Wilder Kent 2030.

Working in partnership

KWTG cannot deliver Wilder Kent 2030 on its own. Partnership can be difficult, but harnessing different approaches means stronger results.

Doubling our landholdings is going to be challenging and will only take us from 0.9% in 2019 to 1.8% of Kent’s area by 2030. Direct management input into areas owned by others can increase this to 4% of Kent where we can then evidence biodiversity uplift as directly attributable to KWTG.

But, achieving nature positive impact over the other 26% of Kent that we need to be ecologically sustainable will depend on working successfully with others in a more arms-length way through delivery of a Nature Recovery Network.

Dover Castle Dover CT16 1HU

Scaling impact

Volunteers

We can focus our own action and innovation on the 2-4% of Kent under our direct influence: using wilding and other principle-based approaches to maximise the number and abundance of species of animals and plants. We can then monitor our impact and openly learn by doing, whilst avoiding pursuing broken paradigms that have failed to halt nature’s decline to-date. These won’t be sufficient to enable nature to adapt to unavoidable climate change anyway.

And, we can use this approach to inspire and engage others - encouraging them to play their part in achieving Wilder Kent 2030’s ambition through direct advocacy and demonstrating the art of the possible.

We know we can enthuse people by involving them in the re-introduction of missing flagship species like chough and ecological engineers (keystone species) like bison and beaver.

Working in partnership in this way increases our chances of success, in the same way we know keystone species will boost abundance and richness of wildlife.

Impact Visualisation

Increased nature in the face of a changing climate

1 GOAL

We defend and restore

Ensure that KWTG is delivering the highest possible impact in the face of habitat loss and climate change.

Biodiversity Carbon lockup

2 GOAL We inspire and collaborate

Build a groundswell of support for Wilder Kent 2030: scaling-up our engagement to reach a larger, more diverse range of people.

KWTG contribution to global nature targets

KWTG are committed to realising the global target of 30% of our land area in management for wildlife by 2030.

To do this we will actively pioneer both NbS and Wilding by innovating, taking calculated risks, demonstrating through doing, and not being scared to fail if things genuinely cannot be made to work.

This will build our brand and reputation based upon action rather than talk. It will enable us to reach a more diverse audience until at least 1 in 4 of Kent’s populace is taking meaningful action for a Wilder Kent, which will further scale our impact (see Fig. 4).

We will position ourselves for success by becoming a more resilient, demonstrably impactful and sustainable organisation through continual learning from national and international best practice, as well as creating it. We will constantly improve our support systems and processes to enable this, with a particular emphasis on digital transformation. Working in this way will enable us to deliver a Wilder Kent by 2030.

We strengthen and grow Diversify KWTG’s income sources and strengthen its systems, whilst operating sustainably.

With NbS

A safer future living with Nature-based Solutions

Climate resilience

With global temperature rise limited to 1.5ºC, we avoid the most severe impacts of the climate crisis.

Improved Public Health

Abundant, climate-resilient landscapes continue to provide vital ecosystem services and enable humanity to thrive.

Economic resilience

Supported by a thriving ecological foundation, the global economy becomes stable and livelihoods are protected.

Without NbS

An uncertain future with a business as usual attitude

Climate uncertainty

On track for a 4ºC world, the world experienc es increasingly severe and unprecedented heatwaves, drought and floods.

Decreasing public health Humanity struggles with food and water availability, increasingly disruptive climatic events and a continued rise in the risk of disease, illness and death.

Economic instability

As the ecological foundation of our economy crumbles, the world faces an unprecedented loss of natural capital and livelihoods.