A company bought 7,500 acres of England for £8.5 million to create ‘Britain’s Yellowstone'

‘Britain’s Yellowstone’: restoration project aims to take the greed out of land acquisition A nature restoration company has bought 7,500 acres of Northumbrian moorland for £8.5 million, starting a large rewilding project that aims to eventually hand the land to a charity or local community once investors have been repaid. The purchase of Emblehope Moor by nature restoration company Restore is the centrepiece of an ambitious plan to turn a large group of estates in northern England into a wild refuge described as "Britain's Yellowstone". According to The Guardian, the organisation wants to show that private investment can help pay for large-scale nature recovery without keeping permanent private ownership of rural land.Funding model aims to remove land speculationTo buy the Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), Restore secured a £4.5 million loan from Triodos Bank along with private investment. The company is now looking for another £4 million to fully fund its 20-year plan. Under the funding model, investors will receive twice the amount they put in, while the bank loan will also be repaid. Once those financial commitments are cleared, Restore plans to transfer the entire 7,...