A rainforest in Cornwall? How your savings are helping it thrive

Cabilla was bought in 1960 by explorer Robin Hanbury-Tenison. Today, it is led by his son and daughter-in-law, Merlin and Lizzie Hanbury-Tenison, and is the most intact temperate rainforest nature reserve in the British Isles.  

The 250-acre hill farm and retreat on the edge of Bodmin Moor has received £1.2 million in new finance from Triodos Bank UK to continue to protect and restore its valuable, ancient oak woodlands and expand the site's temperate rainforest. Visitors to Cabilla’s retreats can immerse themselves in daily yoga and breathwork, forest bathing, swimming in the protected Bedalder river and warming up in a wood-fired sauna. All linked to the ancient woodland and temperate rainforest surrounding them. 

Temperate rainforest and ancient woodlands are home to some of the most threatened species in England. Restoring the biodiversity in these areas will ensure that the fungi, invertebrates and mammals who thrive here will continue to live in the perfect combination of undisturbed soil and decaying wood. These temperate rainforests once covered 20% of the British Isles but today unfortunately just 1% remains. 

What makes this funding package particularly groundbreaking is that it's one of the first by Triodos Bank UK to leverage both Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) and woodland carbon revenue streams, blending carbon credit sales and public funding to show what's truly possible when finance chooses nature as a serious investment. 

Merlin Hanbury-Tenison explains why this work matters: “We’re well aware of the effect that our financial choices have on the world around us. We found the values of Triodos align closely with our mission to restore nature. Besides financing the critical expansion of our rare oak woodlands, we believe this funding can also prove to farmers and landowners – big or small – that protecting nature is a worthwhile investment.”   

The funding will also help support The Thousand Year Project, a charity founded by Merlin which aims to restore Britain's rainforests for our generation and all future generations, for the next 1,000 years. The Trust encourages people to think more like an oak tree: taking the long view, moving beyond short-term thinking, and recognising that restoring habitat in turn restores the creatures that live in it, from wild beavers and bison to the rarest lichens and mosses that cling to ancient bark.  

As part of this mission they are building Europe’s first Atlantic temperate rainforest scientific research station, as well as returning keystone species to the valley and partnering with local farmers on a landscape wide restoration programme. Merlin is the author of the Wainwright Prize-nominated Our Oaken Bones (2025).

Triodos Bank UK, which specialises in finance for organisations with clear social and environmental purpose, has been advocating for the financial system to play a role in reversing biodiversity loss for more than four decades. Last year, the bank committed to providing at least €500 million in investments, loans and contributions to the nature-based solutions sector by the end of 2030 and applies strict minimum standards to avoid financing deforestation or destructive agriculture. This investment in Cabilla is exactly the kind of project that vision was built for, and one that our customers’ savings help make possible.