Coventry University
Sustainable Landscape Management Through Nature, Ponies and People
Finalist, Research with Impact - Institution
Finalist, Research with Impact
About
In 2025, nearly 50,000 hectares of scrubland burned in UK wildfires, releasing 1.3 million tonnes of CO2 and exposing the growing environmental, economic, and public-health costs of a warming climate. Focusing on bracken, a toxic, climate-driven fern that fuels wildfires and releases hazardous compounds, we developed a nature-based solution centred on the endangered Welsh Mountain Pony which reduced the risk/spread of
wildfires. With ponies, the Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience at Coventry University, delivered 500 hectares of landscape scale stewardship and protected thousands more through implementing pony-drawn firebreaks and conservation grazing. Central to our holistic approach is care: for landscapes threatened by wildfire and biodiversity loss, for the native ponies that make this work possible, and for the people who live, work and serve in these environments. We created a model that delivers sustainable environmental protection, supports pony welfare and conservation and improves mental health, well-being and community connection.
Top three learnings
1. We learned that working with ponies delivers mental-health benefits, everyone embraced our
joy-centred, caring philosophy.
2. We discovered that cross-sector collaboration grows faster when trust is built through shared
outdoor work.
3. We realised that simple, nature-based solutions can outperform costly machinery in challenging
landscapes.
SDGs
15- Life on land
What it means to win
Further validation and evidence of our strategic commitment to sustainability.
| 2026 | |
| Research with Impact - Institution | |
| Finalist, UK and Ireland |
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