Charlie Burrell Keynote Speaker

ZSL Silver Medal recipient for conservation science (2023)
Co-author, Sunday Times bestseller The Book of Wilding (2023)
Knepp named the UK’s first European Stork Village (2025)

Charlie Burrell's Biography

Charlie Burrell is the co-owner of Knepp Estate in West Sussex and the driving force behind one of Europe’s most influential nature-recovery experiments. Since 2000, he and Isabella Tree have turned 3,500 acres of unprofitable farmland into a living laboratory for process-led rewilding proving what can happen when nature is put back in the driving seat.

Inspired by a visit to the Oostvaardersplassen project in the Netherlands, Burrell replaced ploughs and pesticides with free-roaming herds that do the “work” of ecosystem engineering. Longhorn cattle, Exmoor ponies, Tamworth pigs and deer shape a constantly shifting mosaic of scrub, wet meadow, wetland and wood pasture creating the conditions for wildlife to return at scale.

In January 2026, a two-decade ecological review showed the results in striking terms: a 900% increase in breeding birds and a 500% rise in nightingales, alongside major gains across butterflies, dragonflies and other species. The White Stork Project has become a flagship success, with a record 53 chicks fledging at Knepp in 2024, and in 2025 Knepp and Storrington were designated the UK’s first European Stork Village by EuroNatur.

Burrell co-authored the Sunday Times bestselling The Book of Wilding (Bloomsbury, 2023), and Knepp’s story reached new audiences through the documentary Wilding, released in UK and Irish cinemas on 14 June 2024. Beyond Sussex, he chairs Conservation Carpathia and Nattergal, and serves as vice-chair of RePLANET helping unlock private finance for landscape-scale restoration.

On stage, Charlie Burrell translates two decades of experimentation into practical lessons for leaders navigating complexity. He shows how to build resilience, work with uncertainty, and turn climate and biodiversity ambition into measurable outcomes without losing sight of livelihoods, communities and place.

Rewilding and nature recovery: lessons from Knepp

Biodiversity, climate resilience and land-use strategy

Nature-positive business models and rural innovation

Mobilising private finance for landscape-scale restoration

Leading through uncertainty in complex systems

He has led the Knepp rewilding project since 2001, turning 3,500 acres into a globally referenced model that shows organisations how nature recovery and viable enterprise can move together.
He translates two decades of hands-on experimentation into clear, practical lessons on resilience, systems change and how to work with natural processes in complex environments.
He brings award-winning authority, receiving the Zoological Society of London’s Silver Medal in 2023 and co-authoring The Book of Wilding, a practical guide to rewilding big and small.
He offers a front-row view of restoration in action, from the White Stork Project’s record 53 chicks fledged in 2024 to Knepp’s story reaching wide audiences through the documentary Wilding.
His briefings help leaders turn biodiversity and climate ambition into delivery, drawing on his leadership roles with Foundation Conservation Carpathia, Nattergal and rePLANET to stress-test plans and unlock momentum at landscape scale.