01
A new pond,
in the bottom field.
A second body of water on the site, giving amphibians, dragonflies and water-loving plants more ground to occupy.
A Valconia initiative
The Nature
Restoration
Project.
Seven acres in a Kent Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, where we're rebuilding habitat, hosting communities, and learning what it takes to restore nature in practice.
7 acres
In a designated AONB near Canterbury
450+ trees
Native species, planted by hand
Gold, 2024
Wilder Kent Awards, business category
01Why we started
A risk we kept coming back to.
Valconia is a strategic risk consultancy. We work with risk leaders, executives and boards on the questions that shape long-term viability: the disruptions already underway, and the shifts that may reshape what remains possible.
Biodiversity loss kept showing up in that work. Not as an environmental concern in the abstract, but as a present-tense exposure: dependencies that don't appear on balance sheets, regulatory direction of travel, supply chains running through ecosystems under quiet pressure. The kind of risk that's easier to write about than to act on.
"So we started by acting on our own."
What began as a wilding initiative on our office land turned into something we hadn't planned. The hands-on work changed how our team thought about the issue, and how visitors talked about their own businesses while they were here. We extended the invitation outward, to other businesses and to community groups, and the project grew from there.
It isn't a service line. It's an initiative we run alongside the consultancy, on the same patch of ground, in the same Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
02The project
Three areas of focus.
Climate & nature. Education. Community. The three sit alongside each other on the same site, and most of what happens here touches more than one at a time.
i.Climate & Nature
Restoring habitat by hand, and lowering the site's footprint as we go.
ii.Education
Open sessions for whoever finds them useful: businesses, community groups, schools, scouts.
iii.Community
A working space that's open to others. Co-working days, eco film nights, foraging walks, planting weekends.
03The place
Seven acres,
near Canterbury.
The site sits within a designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty — a landscape protected for its national significance. It's where Valconia's office, our restored habitats, and the people who pass through all share the same ground.
- Location
- Near Canterbury, Kent
- Designation
- Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty
- Size
- Seven acres
04Climate & nature
What's been done so far.
Improving the biodiversity of the site is the centre of the project. The work is hands-on, ongoing, and — because nature operates on its own timescales — slow in the ways that matter.
A working ledger
- Tree planting
- 450+ native
- Pond building
- One large pond
- Bug hotels
- Multiple
- Wildflower meadow
- In progress
- EV charging
- Installed
- Solar panels
- On site
- Rainwater capture
- Operational
- Repurposed horse-box loo
- Yes, really
- And much else besides
- Always
05Recognition
Gold.
In 2024, the Kent Wildlife Trust awarded us Gold in the business category at the Wilder Kent Awards, recognising the project's contribution to Kent's biodiversity and climate resilience.
We weren't expecting it, and we're grateful to the judges for taking the work seriously.
Awarded by
Kent Wildlife Trust
06Education
Sessions held
on the site.
Alongside our partners, we run a programme of sessions on climate and nature, held on the site, open to whoever finds them relevant. These run quietly through the year. Some are aimed at businesses, some at community groups, some at both.
For businesses
Sessions
- Climate Literacy
- Biodiversity for Business
- Nine Planetary Boundaries
- Regenerative Futures
For community groups
Sessions
- Soil Health
- Sustainability for Scout groups
- Foraging
- …and others, seasonally
07Community
A working space,
open to others.
The site is used by more than just us. Local Scout groups meet here. Businesses come for monthly co-working days. Communities gather for tree planting, eco film nights, walks.
Most of it happens because someone asked. And the answer was usually yes.
Inside the geodesic domeiii
Local Scout groupsiv
08What's next
2026 / 27.
Beyond the everyday work — maintenance, the bioblitz, more habitats — two larger pieces are taking shape.
A new pond,
02
A wild garden,
at home dimensions.
Designed and built to the dimensions of an average UK garden — to show, hands-on, what's possible in the space most of us actually have.
Get in touch
Come and see it.
The site is here, the kettle is usually on, and we like visitors. If you'd like to come and see the project, or are thinking about something you might do at your own site, drop us a line.