‘People start connecting the dots’: why an investment fund is rewilding a North Yorkshire estate

Rebalance Earth is investing in Broughton Sanctuary to generate financial, environmental and social returns From a high point on the hill, the North Yorkshire landscape unrolls below. The moorland above gives way to grassland, trees and then pasture, divided by the region’s traditional dry stone walls. The view may be idyllic, but it belies the condition of parts of this land, belonging to the sprawling 1,100 hectare (2,500-acre) Broughton Sanctuary estate, near Skipton. The area, however, is about to undergo a transformation as an ongoing rewilding project gets funding from the investment fund Rebalance Earth. This is the latest scheme for the firm, which calls itself a “natural capital asset manager” and which aims to treat nature as critical infrastructure and something that can be invested in, to achieve environmental and economic gains. The sweltering days experienced by much of the UK in May and record-breaking temperatures followed by heavy rainfall in June highlighted the urgency of nature restoration, says Rebalance Earth’s co-founder and chief executive, Rob Gardner. “People start connecting the dots … There is a shift in mindset from ‘this is an episodic th