Owner of Knepp Castle, a 1,400 ha estate in West Sussex that has been in the Burrell family for 220 years, Charlie is the inspiration behind Knepp Wildland – the largest rewilding project in lowland Britain. Having thrown all his energies into running the home farm for 20 years and yet still failed to make a profit on the heavy Sussex clay, he had a dramatic change of heart in the 1990s. Switching to ‘process-led’ conservation, using free-roaming herds of grazing animals, Knepp is now a hotspot for numerous endangered species like turtle-doves, nightingales and purple emperor butterflies and has become a leading light in the conservation movement.

He is Chair of Foundation Conservation Carpathia, the Knepp Wildland Foundation, the White Stork Project and is on the board for Rewilding Europe. He sits on the board of The Arcadia Fund, and the oversight committee for the Endangered Landscapes Programme. He also chairs rePlanet wildlife and Nattergal Ltd, sister companies involved in investing in nature restoration.