Award recognises Knepp Castle Estate’s work with nightingales

The estate won a 2019 Life on Land Awards by Redlist Revival, a charity which focuses on involving people and organisations in sustaining life by providing accessible data and resources to help balance the needs of the earth and mankind.

Knepp Castle was recognised for its work with nightingales.

Landholders Charlie Burrell and Isabella Tree said: “For us, nightingales have been an emblem of success in a sea of decline.

“With numbers declining everywhere, we started our project with none and slowly they started to come.

“This has meant that we have been able to be enthralled and excited by the re-emergence of this, and other, missing species.

“With nightingales this is even more exciting as they travel from the West African jungle and now choose to be here – and in encouraging numbers.”

Nightingales singing in a cool spring evening in southern England is one of the greatest joys, according to the landholders.

They added: “The thought that they may be gone from us in the next 20 years is shocking.

“Hopefully what we are doing here at Knepp might help us all become a little bit more aware of what we are doing to our planet and all improve our care for the species we share it with and the habitat they need.”

Dr Mike Rands, past chief executive of the Cambridge Conservation Initiative and master elect of Darwin College, Cambridge added: “I am simply delighted that Sir Charles Burrell and Knepp Estate have been awarded the Life on Land

Award for their amazing efforts to conserve and restore the nightingale population of the UK.”

For more see www.redlistrevival.org

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