Your organisation's purpose:
Birling Estate is situated in the North Kent Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. We believe in being a place where people, nature and enterprise can flourish in harmony. Our vision is to become an exemplar regenerative estate through our approach to farming, forestry and diversification enterprises.
Everything we do is driven by a love for the land and for nature. Our diversification enterprises are viewed through a lens of climate change, biodiversity gain, health & wellbeing, and culture & heritage and we aim to provide a positive impact either through our own operations or by educating others.
What is your impact initiative?
Nestled amongst Ancient Woodland, Badgells Wood is a campsite on a mission to inspire a love of the woods. We aim to go beyond being an ‘eco-campsite’ to a place of regenerative tourism, and re-invest funds from the campsite to enhance the condition of the woodland and surrounding SSSI.
The campsite offers 50 pitches across more than 30 acres, which means that visitors are fully immersed in the woodland environment, with enough private space to reconnect with nature and escape the stressors of modern life.
Badgells Wood offers a range of activities and events centred around ‘Wellness in the Woods’. We offer forest bathing, meditation, Qi Gong, wildlife photography, archery, axe-throwing, bushcraft, and children’s summer camp activities. We are also expanding to offer a new selection of events in 2023, including woodland art, yoga, foraging, fire cooking and woodland dining experiences.
Evidence also shows that we think the clearest and make the best decisions when we are outside and connected to nature. When deeply immersed in nature, we can learn to reconnect with ourselves, our peers and with our brain’s frontal cortex, which is responsible for memory, critical thinking, and attention. Our Corporate Experiences offering has also been designed to utilise the woodland setting to promote wellness and lead strategic business change with the help of local Adventure Coach, Martin Covill.
Birling Estate supplies limited quantities of seasoned English Timber (Oak, Walnut, Ash, Sweet Chestnut, Western Red Cedar and Yew), sourced and milled on the Estate to local craftspeople such as carpenters, bespoke furniture makers, wood-carvers and sculptors, interior designers, architects and specialist contractors. We are very proud to have our woodlands certified by Grown in Britain, which evidences that all of the timber is from well-managed woodland.
The impact your initiative has had:
We believe in the principles of circular economy – eliminate waste and pollution, circulate products and materials, and regenerate nature. Our off-grid campsite has been set up to have minimal impact on the surrounding environment and a small carbon footprint, our initiatives include solar panels, composting WC’s, bio-degradable cleaning products, waste recycling, sourcing firewood and natural building materials from the estate, we employ locally, and use locally sourced products wherever possible.
Our sustainably managed woodland is coppiced to encourage biodiversity. The coppiced sweet chestnut trees are utilised for the estate’s building materials and the timber is processed in our on-site sawmill. In this way, we recently completed a tree-house and adventure playground at Badgells Wood.
The waste from our composting WC’s is converted to compost for our arable fields, helping to improve soil health and reducing fertiliser inputs.
We’ve also been able to restore 35 acres of SSSI chalk grassland, an international rare habitat, adjacent to Badgells Wood for our visitors, and local wildlife, to enjoy. Old chalk grassland is one of the richest habitats in Western Europe in terms of botanical diversity and contains as many as 45 species per square metre, including rare orchids and butterflies. We employ a local herder to maintain the grassland through conservation grazing, using sheep, goats and cows to prevent the scrub from taking over and providing space for wildflowers to grow.
Have you observed any direct benefits to your business or organisation as a result of the initiative?
More than 50% of campers at Badgells Wood are return visitors, many of them returning to visit every year. Approximately 30% of new bookings come from recommendations from existing campers. The feedback we receive is that its peaceful location within a woodland setting and spacious plots set us apart from the competition. Guests seem to appreciate our off-grid sustainable approach, without losing the conveniences of modern life such as clean facilities and warm showers.
The money derived from our diversification enterprises is ploughed back into regenerating the health of the woodland and soil on Birling Estate. The existing non-native conifer plantations on the estate are being harvested and re-planted with native hardwoods which creates a more diverse habitat for wildlife.
Have you observed any benefits to your visitors as a result of the initiative?
The long list of mental and physical health benefits of being immersed in nature is well documented. Reconnecting with nature - particularly woodland - is proven to be effective in lowering stress hormones, enhancing mood and wellbeing, reducing blood pressure and heart rate, improving concentration and memory and is also a powerful way to boost the immune system.
What category/categories does your initiative fall under?
- Reducing energy use
- Reducing waste
- Nature positive initiatives – conserving, preserving or restoring landscapes, habitats & wildlife
- Reducing overcrowding & promoting off-season tourism
- Local job creation
- Wellbeing
Address:
Badgells Wood Campsite, Whitehorse Road, Meopham, Kent, DA13 0UF
Website:
Contact email address:
