Benedict Macdonald

Benedict Macdonald is a British naturalist, conservationist, writer and producer. He currently works as Head of Nature Restoration for Real Wild Estates, whilst pursuing a range of nature restoration projects and books in the UK.

Having studied wildlife since a very early age, he pursued a career in natural history film-making and has worked on series including The One Show, Springwatch, The Hunt and as a field director for the Emmy-award winning Our Planet; a conservation series narrated by Sir David Attenborough, which premiered on Netflix in 2019.

As a writer, his first book, 'Rebirding', highlighted the need for mass-scale nature restoration across the UK, and was the winner of the Richard Jefferies Prize & inaugural winner of the Wainwright Conservation Prize 2020. His second book, 'Orchard: A Year in England's Eden', co-written with Nicholas Gates, was published by Harper Collins in August 2020 and won the Richard Jefferies Prize for the second year in a row. His third book, 'Cornerstones', is released in July 2022.

As a conservationist, Ben has remained at the forefront of public discourse on rewilding, nature restoration, regenerative farming and the reintroduction of lost species to the UK. Ben studied at Christ Church, Oxford.