NGO Announces 2026 Conservation Champions Award Winners at Annual Ceremony

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The National Gamekeepers’ Organisation (NGO), together with long‑standing sponsor Marsdens Game Feeds, proudly presented the 2026 Conservation Champions Awards at its annual awards ceremony on 22 April 2026. This year’s event placed a clear spotlight on Best Practice - the foundation on which the gamekeeping and game shooting sector has operated for generations, and the standard that will secure its future.

The Conservation Champions Awards recognise and promote exceptional conservation success stories from across the UK. Aimed at shoots, estates, and individual gamekeepers, these prestigious awards highlight the positive impact that skilled, responsible game management has on wildlife, biodiversity, and the wider countryside.

The NGO emphasised that the sector’s long‑standing commitment to Best Practice is evident not only in the achievements of this year’s Conservation Champions, but also in the dedication of the Long Service Medal recipients and the many partners and professionals who support the NGO’s work.

“The Conservation Champions Awards celebrate both our collective and our individual hard work, and we do it together,” the NGO said. “Best Practice isn’t a slogan. It’s what we have been doing for decades, and what we must continue to do for many years to come to ensure the future of our sport and our profession.”

The NGO also paid tribute to its sponsor, Marsdens Game Feeds, and to Jamie Horner, whose support makes the awards possible each year.

2026 Marsdens Special Award

Winner: The Country Food Trust

Every year, Marsdens Game Feeds and the National Gamekeepers’ Organisation present the Marsdens Special Award; a commendation recognising outstanding excellence and contribution to the UK game sector. This year, the award was presented to The Country Food Trust in recognition of its unwavering dedication to supporting both the game sector and the communities that need help most.

David Pooler, National Chair of the NGO said: “The Country Food Trust has become one of the most important champions of game meat as a healthy, sustainable source of protein and is a lifeline for people facing food poverty. Their work demonstrates the very best of what our sector can offer.”

As a food‑poverty charity, the Country Food Trust’s mission is simple and vital: to raise funds to provide high‑protein, nutritious meals to those in need. These meals, along with raw game meat, are distributed to foodbanks and community kitchens across the UK, ensuring that families and individuals in crisis have access to balanced, nourishing food.

To date, the Country Food Trust has provided over seven million free meals to people living in food poverty - an extraordinary achievement and a powerful example of how our sector can support both communities and conservation.

The CEO of The Country Food Trust, SJ Hunt, accepted the award and delivered a compelling speech on the importance of game meat as a sustainable, nutritious protein and the charity’s commitment to ensuring that everyone, regardless of circumstance, has access to healthy food.

2026 Conservation Champions Award for Innovation

The Innovation Award recognises innovative ideas, technologies, and techniques that advance gamekeeping, rearing, and shooting. The NGO is delighted to announce that the 2026 Conservation Champions Award for Innovation goes to:

Game Larder by Tarrant Refrigeration

Explaining the judges’ decision, the NGO said:

“Game Larder has created a self‑assembly game larder designed specifically for individual hunters and game producers. Built for versatility, these larders offer cutting‑edge solutions where access for larger units is limited; they can be installed inside existing or redundant buildings. The self‑assembly system is straightforward, with clear guidance that allows even the least DIY‑confident to build their own larder and significantly reduce installation costs. It is an impressive example of innovation that directly supports Best Practice across the sector making them very worthy winners.”

2026 Conservation Champions Award for Habitat

The Habitat Award is for an estate or shoot which has improved the habitat for game, and/or red- and amber-listed species including woodland, arable, wetland, and moorland habitats. The winner of 2026 Conservation Champions Award for Habitat is:

John Martin, Warningore Farm Shoot, East Sussex

Warningore Farm Shoot is a successful pheasant shoot near Lewes in East Sussex, where John Martin grew up hearing his father speak of a time when sea trout once bred in the stream running through their land. John decided to change that story.

John has shown remarkable commitment to conservation, clearing 2.5 miles of stream across his farm to give the Sussex sea trout a clear, unobstructed path to spawn once again. This magnificent fish is an apex predator of the River Ouse and a vital indicator of river health, relying on clean, connected waterways to complete its journey from the Ouse to the English Channel and back.

The NGO said: “Thanks to John’s hard work, these protected and nationally important fish have already returned to his stream. It is a clear reminder that when management meets determination, nature responds.”

2026 Conservation Champions Award for Responsible Land Management 

The Responsible Land Management Award recognises an estate or shoot that can clearly demonstrate how its management improves the landscape and enhances habitat to support biodiversity. This year’s winner is:

Daniel Crimp, Bodorgan Estate, Anglesey

For 36 years, Daniel Crimp has shaped the Bodorgan Estate into one of Wales’s finest examples of habitat‑led conservation. What began as a developing pheasant and partridge shoot is now a thriving mosaic of woodland, grassland, and wetland where native and migratory wildlife flourish.

Daniel has placed habitat creation at the heart of his work planting more than two hundred acres of native woodland, restoring hedgerows across twenty tenant farms, and improving grassland and grazing regimes that have boosted botanical diversity and supported breeding curlew, lapwing, and chough.

His approach to game cover has transformed over forty acres into diverse rotational blocks rich in invertebrate life, now alive with finches, sparrows, kestrels, and sparrowhawks. His wetland management, including 250 acres of bog and marsh and thirty wild duck ponds, has ensured the reliable return of wintering snipe and provided secure habitat for overwintering duck. 

Presenting the award, John Clarke, NGO Director of Conservation, Policy & Uplands said: “Daniel’s long‑term thinking, collaboration with farmers, and evidence‑led management have created a functioning landscape where shooting, farming and biodiversity recovery genuinely coexist. His work represents responsible land management at its best.” 

2026 Conservation Champions Award for Outstanding Commitment to Shooting and Conservation

This new award recognises an individual whose dedication, vision and long‑term commitment have delivered exceptional benefits for both shooting and conservation.

Winner: James Allsop, Monk Wood Shoot, Derbyshire

“When James Allsop began his project at Monk Wood in 2017, he inherited a landscape that was bleak, depleted and offering little more than commercial larch, pine, and tired grassland. What he has achieved since is nothing short of extraordinary. James is a truly outstanding ambassador for shooting and conservation, and a thoroughly deserving recipient of this award” commented the NGO.

With the income from timber felling, James transformed a blank canvas into a thriving mosaic of habitats. He has created over thirty ponds and scrapes, dug dykes and beetle banks, and planted more than twenty-five acres of wild bird cover. Over fifty feeding stations now support birds across the holding, with more than five tonnes of food hand‑scattered each year.

His work on hedgerows and connectivity is remarkable: miles of existing hedge laid, five miles of new hedgerow created, and over 55,000 trees and shrubs planted. Add to that new shelterbelts, digger‑bee banks, hibernacula, dead hedges and even a new five‑acre woodland; every inch of his land has been improved for wildlife.

The judging panel recognised James’ passion. He engages openly with the public, MPs and councillors, championing the role of shooting in conservation. And he has built a community around this project. But the real winner is the wildlife that now thrives because of his vision and relentless commitment.

2026 Conservation Champions Lifetime Achievement Award

This award recognises an individual whose lifelong dedication to land, water and wildlife has shaped a place so profoundly that their legacy becomes part of the landscape itself.

Winner: Roger Harrison, Itchen Stoke Mill

Roger Harrison has spent a lifetime caring for the land and water around Itchen Stoke Mill, and his commitment is visible in every meadow, channel, and quiet bend of this extraordinary place.

He manages the river entirely for wild fish. Brown trout and grayling thrive here, supported by clean gravels, healthy side channels, and carefully tended water crowfoot. There are no releases, no shortcuts just wild fish, catch‑and‑release, and a standard of management that has become a benchmark for others.

According to one friend: “The Mill is Heaven on Earth.” Roger has made it so.

John Clarke said: “For his lifetime of dedication, his unwavering commitment to conservation, and the landscape he leaves for future generations, he is a profoundly deserving recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award.”

Each of this year’s winners has demonstrated exceptional dedication, vision, and care for the countryside. They are truly worthy Conservation Champions for 2026, and the NGO and Marsdens Game Feeds are proud to celebrate their remarkable achievements.

Ends/.

Notes to Editors:

The National Gamekeepers’ Organisation: The National Gamekeepers’ Organisation (NGO) represents the gamekeepers of England and Wales. The NGO defends and promotes gamekeeping and gamekeepers and works to ensure high standards throughout the profession. The National Gamekeepers’ Organisation was founded in 1997 by a group of gamekeepers who felt that keepering was threatened by public misunderstanding and poor representation. Today, there are 13,000 members of the National Gamekeepers’ Organisation.  www.nationalgamekeepers.org.uk