The Moorland Association has today announced that James Lambert OBE has been elected Chair of the organisation.
James was elected unanimously by the Board of Directors at the Annual General Meeting this week. He succeeds Mark Cunliffe-Lister, who has served as chair since May 2020.
James began his working life as a cattle breeder in North Yorkshire. He invested in a local ice-cream business with six employees and transformed it into R & R Ice Cream, a hugely successful enterprise with revenue in excess of £1 billion. The firm later merged with Nestlé European Ice Cream.
He was awarded an OBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours in 2013.
James Lambert said: “I am delighted to join the Moorland Association, whose members make a tremendous contribution to the protection and conservation of heather moorland – one of the country’s most precious landscapes.
“Moor owners, in common with many other landowners, are wholly committed to striking the right balance between sustainable food production, wildlife, habitat restoration and improvement, community engagement, rural jobs and responsible access for all. The outstanding conservation work undertaken by many of our members is an ideal example of how all these benefits can be achieved, while supporting jobs in the uplands and protecting peatland for carbon capture. We will continue to seek wider recognition of this from decision-makers. I feel very privileged to succeed Mark who is widely admired for his important work on behalf of the association and its members.”
Mark Cunliffe-Lister said: “We are very pleased that James Lambert has agreed to join us, bringing to the Moorland Association the benefit of his extensive business and leadership acumen. This year we have been fortunate enough to also appoint Andrew Gilruth as chief executive, whose extensive knowledge and previous experience will help the organisation and our commitment to demonstrating all the benefits of grouse moor management for nature, the environment and rural communities.”
Moorland Association members manage 860,000 acres of heather moorland across the North York Moors, the Northern Pennines, the Forest of Bowland, the Peak District and the Yorkshire Dales. More than 60 per cent of England’s upland Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) are moors managed for grouse shooting.
In excess of 27,000 hectares of moorland has been re-vegetated and restored by Moorland Association members to date, equating to 60 per cent of the government’s peatland restoration target for the uplands, and reducing CO2 emissions by 61,126 tonnes per year.
Peer-reviewed scientific research reports that the curlew, Britain’s most endangered wading bird, is four times as likely to fledge a chick successfully on a grouse moor as on similar habitat without gamekeepers. Grouse moor management is playing an essential role in preventing the UK extinction of this iconic species, which is near-threatened globally.
Grouse moors are also strongholds for the hen harrier, short-eared owl, merlin, golden plover, ring ouzel and lapwing.