The green King: How Charles III champions nature, farming and the countryside

Originally published by Countryfile Magazine, Monday 27 March 2023

What are the views and work of King Charles III on the countryside and environment, and what might he do next? The BBC’s head of rural affairs, Dimitri Houtart, takes a look at the new king’s approach.

For over 50 years, King Charles III has expressed his concern for environmental issues. For decades he has worked not only to draw attention to the environmental threats humanity faces but also to drive change for more sustainable practices.

When, as Prince of Wales, Charles started giving speeches about ecology, biodiversity and sustainability in the 1970s, it was a time when few understood their importance and he was sometimes ridiculed. He joked later that when he first talked about biodiversity people thought he was talking about a new kind of washing powder. Yet despite the criticisms, he never stopped raising these issues.

Fast-forward five decades and, when it comes to conservation matters, His Majesty the King now looks like he had been a visionary all along. He warned about issues of climate change well before a climate emergency was announced. He was highlighting the dangers of biodiversity loss for decades before it became mainstream.

In 1970, at the age of just 21 and just a year after his investiture as Prince of Wales, Charles used his first public speech to express his concerns about pollution, the environment and conservation as he launched the European Conservation Year in Wales. If King Charles were to deliver the same speech today, it would not have aged. In it he talked about the problem of river pollution; today the River Wye that flows through England and Wales suffers appallingly from pollution. He warned about waste and in particular the effect of single-use plastic. He encouraged tree planting. He cautioned about air pollution from “gases pumped out by endless cars and aeroplanes”.

This speech marked the start of a lifelong journey in campaigning for conservation and the environment. But it was not just campaigning and speeches – he was also keen to make practical changes where he could. In 1985, he converted his farm and estate – Highgrove in Gloucestershire – to organic farming methods. King Charles recently recalled he was deemed a “complete idiot” for wanting to farm organically. At the time, organic farming was relatively unknown, but Charles was concerned about soil fertility, biodiversity and the impact of conventional farming systems and wanted to show a different approach to farming was possible. He quickly became one of the UK’s organic pioneers.

Charles has also been campaigning about the importance of keeping rural communities alive. He believes rural towns and villages need to be both living and working places and central to this is the part small farms play. As a big landowner, when in charge of the Duchy of Cornwall, he tried to ensure tenants could have continuity through succession, as well as making entry-level farming possible. He also created The Prince’s Countryside Fund, which aims to support family farms and rural communities. This fits with the King’s vision of creating economic incentives, giving small farmers the opportunity to be part of the UK’s food economy.

Over the years, the King has also shared his interest in architecture and the urban environment, saying that people should be provided with a home and not just a ‘house’. He put his vision for housing development into reality in 1993 when he created Poundbury. Situated in Dorset on the edge of Dorchester, this new-build town has a mix of Georgian, Victorian, neoclassical and even Greco-Roman-inspired building design and follows the principles for architecture and urban living the King expressed in his 1989 documentary and book: A Vision of Britain.

Poundbury still divides opinions. Some think its mixed-use design has enabled a sense of community and that it is much more attractive than many other new housing developments. Others think it is kitsch, describing it as a “feudal Disneyland”.

In 2010, together with writer and broadcaster Ian Skelly and environmentalist Tony Juniper, he wrote Harmony. The book summarises how the King shaped his views about the environment over 40 years and observes how a disconnect from nature is fuelling the threats to our planet and the climate. The book champions sustainability and covers issues from farming to architecture, as well as his controversial views on alternative medicines.

The King’s principles and philosophy, as explored in Harmony, have been put into practice at Dumfries House; a Scottish estate the King has helped bring back to life, turning it into a charitable education centre. Dumfries House runs courses on crafts, horticulture and another of the King’s passions: rare breeds. On the estate’s farm you may encounter Vaynol cattle, Landrace pigs or the Cröllwitzer – a turkey with rather splendid black and white plumage.

Many wonder if, now that he is King – with the limitations that comes with the position – it means the conservation world has lost an outspoken ally. In Glasgow in 2021, he gave a speech at the opening ceremony of COP 26 – the gathering where environmental commitments are made by global leaders. He had planned to go to COP 27 in November 2022 in Egypt to give a speech, too, but was advised against it by the then Prime Minister Liz Truss.

Clearly, as King, he will not be able to be as outspoken as he once was. And it may well be that he will have achieved his biggest legacy when serving as Prince of Wales, and not as King. But His Majesty has passed on his passion for conservation and the environment to the new Prince of Wales. In 2021, Prince William launched the Earthshot Prize together with Sir David Attenborough, allocating £50 million worth of prizes over 10 years to projects providing practical solutions to protect the environment.

But the King is unlikely to stop caring. In a speech in 1995 he said: “I do not want to be accused by my grandchildren of sitting idly by and doing nothing while the biodiversity that my generation inherited was being destroyed by short-term short-sightedness and crass insensitivity. History is full of such cases, so let’s break the mould. It will be the last chance we’ve got...” Some 20 years later, during a visit to his farmhouse in a tiny Transylvania village in Romania where he likes to holiday in the spring and enjoy the beautiful meadows, we quoted this back to the then Prince of Wales, asking if he thought he had done enough. His answer was emphatic: “No, of course I haven’t!”