The award, which is for services to nature recovery, recognises Estelle’s remarkable achievements during a 25-year career with The Wildlife Trusts movement and her 11 years as Chief Executive of Berkshire, Buckinghamshire & Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust.

George Levvy, Chair of the Trust, said: “It is terrific news that Estelle has been awarded an MBE in recognition of her services to nature recovery in Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire. The award is a reflection of the tremendous successes the Trust has achieved under her inspiring leadership. For more than 25 years her passion for and commitment to nature’s recovery has shone through in everything she does. Estelle’s drive and determination has seen BBOWT transformed into an organisation focused on people, social justice, inclusion and harnessing behavioural change to help reach a key vision of ‘more nature everywhere, for everyone’.” 

Estelle said: “I am incredibly grateful to receive this honour which reflects the remarkable team I have the privilege of working with at the Trust. Without our volunteers, supporters, members, trustees and staff none of the amazing achievements the Trust has delivered for wildlife would be possible. Our reserves are havens for wildlife, our centres bring people closer to nature, our education programmes spark a passion for nature in the next generation and our landscape projects bring partners together in a shared vision to restore our natural world. I am proud of the impact of the Trust and our ambition for nature continues to grow.”   

A life-long conservationist, Estelle began her career at one of the smallest Wildlife Trusts, Montgomeryshire Wildlife Trust in Wales, progressing from a volunteer to Chief Executive in 2005. There, Estelle’s finest achievement was perhaps the Pumlumon Project. Before Estelle’s work it was a fairly barren landscape with few visitors, the natural woodland had been all but destroyed and the ancient peat bog, which had soaked up carbon for thousands of years, drained. 

Pumlumon was the first project of its kind, and it was visionary in its approach – focusing on changing people as well as nature by encouraging landowners, communities and businesses to manage their landscape in a way that both supported them and tackled the climate crisis. Bogs were brought back to life holding water and storing carbon again, trees planted, and cattle reintroduced to shape the landscape. Previously rare or absent wildlife, like ospreys, continue to return to the area, showing that Estelle’s work in Montgomeryshire has left a lasting legacy. The project has since acted as a model inspiring projects across Europe.

When she arrived at BBOWT in 2014, the Trust was focused on restoring nature in a way that concentrated almost exclusively on nature reserve management. To help nature recover across the three counties, Estelle recognised that people had to value it and be part of the solution.

Over the past eleven years Estelle’s drive and determination has seen BBOWT transformed into an organisation focused on people, social justice, inclusion and harnessing behavioural change to help reach a key vision of ‘more nature everywhere, for everyone’.

The Trust now works with many community, social and faith-based organisations to co-create projects which enhance urban greenspace, improve wilder spaces and enrich local communities, including Nextdoor Nature in Slough, Wild Bicester and Wild Banbury.

Using the power of nature to improve health and wellbeing is central to several initiatives at BBOWT in recent years including the Nature Memories Café, a group for people with dementia and their carers, and Engaging with Nature projects in West Berkshire and Windsor and Maidenhead which worked with marginalised and underserved communities including those living in sheltered housing, a women’s refuge, and people living with mental ill health. 

Estelle has supported landscape-scale recovery at our largest nature reserve, Chimney Meadows in West Oxfordshire. She led multiple land purchases, and the reserve now covers more than 250 ha, straddling the River Thames west of Oxford. We have been able to restore floodplain meadows there, both helping to store floodwater and encouraging a vast array of wetland wildlife. 

Estelle’s drive to build relationships and align organisations with BBOWT’s mission extends to large-scale partnerships and programmes with a range of organisations. BBOWT runs the environmental programme at Windsor Great Park on behalf of the Crown Estate. Our long-term relationship with the West Berkshire Council means we manage nearly all the nature reserves and common land on their behalf.

During her tenure, Estelle has overseen substantial growth at BBOWT, and the Trust is now one of the largest Wildlife Trusts in the UK with more than 80 nature reserves, 150 staff and more than 60,000 members. The Trust is an increasingly influential voice for wildlife, not only impacting policy but also working with a wide range of partners to restore the natural world.