Scaling conservation: an interview with Dr Rich Stockdale

Could you share the story behind the inception of Oxygen Conservation and what personal motivations led you to focus on conservation?

My motivation was the increasing realisation of how terrible of a state the planet is in and the frustration and fury that no one was doing anything about it.

I always loved the environment from a child, and as an adult I joined the Environment Agency to try and make a difference. But because it was a political entity I couldn’t, it stopped you from changing anything for the better. I went on to join Sanctus, and there we had the opportunity to create and deliver positive change, but this was on a project level. The chance to scale conservation at Oxygen Conservation was unique. The same way Silicon Valley had changed our approach to data systems and the tech world, I wanted to change the world of conservation. I wanted to bring together the worlds of data, information, and elite performance culture that I had experienced in the sporting world and apply that to the environment sector.

The imperative to do something about the environment aligned with me having children. I wanted to be able to tell them that we tried, and at best, that we did something meaningful and important and inspired thousands of people to achieve more for people and wildlife.

Thanks to the Oxygen House Group, I was given the opportunity to really scale conservation, to try and professionalise the environment sector and create an elite team of passionate people. Over the last three years I've been hugely fortunate to build with a team of 30 of the most incredible people in the world, experts in everything from economics to environmental science, from marketing to finance, from legal to built property and ecotourism – a very special group of people.

What are the core objectives of Oxygen Conservation and how do/will you measure the success?

Our mission is to scale conservation, which means delivering positive environmental and social impact and generating profit as a result not the purpose. And that's a mission statement. That's a goal for us. That's our Everest.

In terms of key strategic objectives, we're constantly questioning these and redefining them ourselves. Our focus currently is on making the market. We aim to make the natural capital sector a defined asset class by moving and mobilising substantial capital. We need to prove every aspect of our business model from acquiring land at scale to producing natural capital products and services, to generating renewable energy and building new homes for people in rural environments.

We're so proud of the people that live and work on the estates we have at the moment, but we want it to be more than that. We also want to create an iconic ecotourism brand, because conservation should mean people in the environment, not out of the environment and will achieve this through our Oxygen Escapes brand.

We want to integrate regenerative agriculture into conservation and provide access to land for new entrants in the agricultural sector. We’re not farmers, we have huge respect for farmers who are producing food. That's why we don't buy grade one and two arable land and why we don't target farmland. But regenerative agriculture is a key part of our business model, and we love being able to provide access to land and grazing licences, especially for new entrants in the agricultural sector.

Success will be measured by managing a billion dollars’ worth of assets by 2030, making us the world’s first conservation-focused Unicorn company.

Looking ahead, what do you believe are the most significant trends or market forces that will shape the future of the natural capital sector?

This answer is going to begin with doom and gloom and desperation, but end with hope. The worsening climate crisis, with more erratic and dangerous weather, will be a significant push for the development of the natural capital economy.

I think there will be an increasing recognition of individual and corporate responsibility around climate and carbon, leading to a convergence of the regulated and voluntary markets. This will likely drive-up carbon prices. It will become an increasing requirement for high profile individuals and businesses to offset their lifetime footprint. It's something I'm going to do personally this year.

I view the carbon markets as the front of the train, and the BNG and nature credits being the carriages, they're coming along in the same process just a little further behind, over the next 10 years we’ll see a really well developed market.

The development of a nature credit market will become more prominent as big food and clothing producers recognise the full cost of their environmental impact. We need to put a meaningful price on the carbon and a price on our impact on the environment. If we fail to do that, we don’t have to worry about natural capital markets, because the world will be over.

The most significant market trend we anticipate is the potential sale of our entire portfolio in the next few years. Successfully executing a transaction of this magnitude – potentially in the hundreds of millions – would send a shockwave through the market, redefining what’s possible. This is the first time I'm putting in writing that we might consider selling the portfolio, with the intent of reinvesting the proceeds to further scale our conservation efforts. If we proceed, I believe we’ll have truly shaped and established the market.

What advice would you give to other landowners who are interested in making the most of their natural capital potential? Where is the best place for them to start?

Listen to your land. It will tell you what it needs. Your role is to help remove the negative influences and anything that might be restricting the natural capital. However, it would be a mistake to impose a solution on a landscape that isn't suited for it – that's how many of our environmental problems began. People have tried to farm land that should be wetland, and planted trees on areas that should be peatland. You need to listen to the landscape and understand it. When we acquire an estate, we typically do as little as we can ecologically for the first 12 months, aside from stopping activities that are harmful to the landscape, such as the use of pesticides and chemicals, which we believe are inappropriate, or burning the hillside.

My advice is to observe the landscape before setting your objectives. Rather than trying to control nature, aim to work with it, to be a part of it, and help it achieve what it naturally wants to do.

You can also seek out expert advice from organisations like the Wildlife Trust and the Rivers Trust, which are well-equipped to guide you. If you're operating more commercially, there are excellent land agents and smaller consultancies across the country that can support your objectives for the landscape.

Finally, consider why you should stop at your boundaries—or why there should be boundaries at all. Much of our land in Scotland is marked by natural features like rocks or the top of a hill. By collaborating with partners, colleagues, and neighbours, you can connect more land for nature. Think about how you can expand and better connect your efforts to improve the landscape. Across the 30,000 acres we currently manage, which we hope will increase to 50,000 by the end of this year, we've connected with an additional 90,000 acres to other conservation-minded landowners and managers. This collective effort allows us all to do more for people and wildlife, which is incredibly important.

For more information visit Oxygen Conservation.

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