Birders need birds. Landscape photographers need landscapes. Both are running out.
The average fall in monitored wildlife populations since 1970.
Hectares of forest cleared since 1990. That is an area bigger than India.
Species in Great Britain at risk of disappearing. For birds it is closer to half.
Of Britain’s woodland is in good ecological condition. The rest is just trees.
Because we would be daft not to. Everything we sell is downstream of a healthy countryside.
BirdForum only exists because there are birds worth arguing about. Outdoor Photographer only has covers because there are places still worth the walk. If the habitats go, the hobbies go, and our titles go with them.
So this is not a side project or a logo on a charity’s website. It is where the group is heading. The titles earn the money. Over time, the money buys land.
Nothing clever. The things that are known to work, done patiently, on land we control.
One site in the UK to begin with. Tired farmland or neglected woodland. Small is fine. Small is how everything here started.
Native broadleaf woodland, wet ground, rough meadow, thick hedges. The unglamorous mix that birds, insects and mammals actually need. Then mostly leave it alone.
We own the largest birding community on the internet. Very few landowners can ask 200,000 birders to help survey a site. We can.
Our photographers document the same ground year after year, in print and online, so readers can watch a field turn back into somewhere.
We intend to hold the land in a charity, so it stays wild whatever happens to the company.
As the group grows, so does the land.
We would rather tell you that than pretend. This page will change as the number does.
Sources: WWF Living Planet Report 2024; FAO Global Forest Resources Assessment 2020; State of Nature 2023; Forest Research, Forestry Statistics 2025; Rosenberg et al., Decline of the North American avifauna, Science, 2019.
We are looking for a first site in the UK. Farmland, woodland or something in between.
Ecologists, wildlife trusts and foresters: we would rather take advice than guess.
Every subscription, membership and advert moves this forward.