Improving understanding of our natural environment

For the first time across Grosvenor’s three UK rural estates, we’re capturing the most accurate information on record of their soils and all living things that will enable us to make more informed decisions that promote nature recovery and climate resilience.

As part of a Grosvenor wide carbon commitment, across the rural estates we’re working to reduce our emissions in line with limiting global warming to 1.5°C. We see nature-based solutions as of equal importance as technological in achieving our ambition and this necessitates harnessing the natural abilities of the environment to protect people and the planet from the effects of climate change.

It is only by developing as accurate a baseline as possible that we can identify the benefits to people and wildlife that flow from the land, such as carbon storage, flood mitigation and sustainable food production, enabling the organisation to prioritise where action needs to be taken and measure improvements.

Alongside existing data, our expert teams are working with specialist consultants and partner organisations to undertake an extensive ground truthing exercise. A series of science-led surveys have been carried out across the rural estates including using lasers to scan from the air creating 3D models of the land that are accurate to 5cm, soil organic carbon sampling – measuring the soil’s ability to store carbon and water – as well as an innovative pilot investigating whether environmental DNA in soils can be used as an early indicator of ecological biodiversity and therefore soil health.

In partnership with Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU) Natural Capital Hub, a pioneering facility that was created to help safeguard the UK’s natural assets by sharing data and strategies among public and private bodies, all the collected data will be analysed, helping us to better understand the natural assets on the land we manage as well as sharing information and best practice with organisations embarking on their own sustainability journeys.

We’ve produced a series of films capturing how these extensive surveys were completed across the diverse environments that makeup our rural estates, from windswept Highland mountains in Scotland, the mosaic of habitats that make up Bowland’s moorland in Lancashire or the fertile agricultural land of the Cheshire plain.

Measuring carbon in our peatland

At Grosvenor’s Reay Forest Estate in the north-west Highlands, we sampled swathes of peatland to better understand its depth and quality, how much carbon it stores as well as its potential to capture more from the atmosphere.

Analysing habitat biodiversity

At Grosvenor's Eaton Estate, Cheshire, in collaboration with the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust, we've carried out detailed surveys of the diverse habitats found on the estate, such as woodlands, grasslands, ponds and wetlands, assessing their condition, biodiversity and connectivity to inform how we can support landscape scale nature recovery.

Enhancing the health of our soils

Approximately double the carbon in the atmosphere is stored in the Earth's soils. At Grosvenor’s Abbeystead Estate, Lancashire, we're working with Agricarbon to sample our soils and measure organic carbon content to estimate overall soil health as well as its capacity to hold water, reducing the risk of flooding downstream. Detailed surveys will help us to identify where and when we need to take action to improve our soils and where we have the potential to store more carbon in the land.

Using soil environmental DNA to measure biodiversity improvement

At Grosvenor’s Reay Forest Estate in the north-west Highlands, we're working in collaboration with the Institute for Biodiversity and Freshwater Conservation, University of the Highlands and Islands, Inverness, on a pilot study to see if environmental DNA (eDNA) in the soils, can be an early indicator of nature recovery.

There’s never been a more important time for land managers to understand the importance of the natural environment in combating climate change and bolstering species biodiversity. We are measuring the current state of nature across our land to equip ourselves with the best scientific data to inform future decisions that benefit communities and wildlife.

Jo Holden, Head of Sustainability, Grosvenor Rural Estates.

Read more about how we’re reducing carbon emissions across Grosvenor’s Rural Estates through our carbon action plan here.