Fifty landowners have applied to a government scheme to rewild their land, the environment secretary has said, as he reassured green Tories that the net-zero target will be protected by the next administration. Speaking at the Conservative Environment Network’s summer party, George Eustice acknowledged that people who care about the environment feel “apprehensive and anxious” about the Conservative leadership election. But he reassured those assembled, including MPs, conservationists and Tory activists, that green measures would continue to be introduced over the summer. One of these is the setting up of the landscape recovery scheme, which incentivises landowners to rewild their land rather than using it for intensive farming. Eustice said: “We had an open call earlier this year for another 10 or 15 ‘Knepps’, that is, landowners who want to set up their land to be similar to Knepp’s landscape-scale nature recovery projects. We had 50 expressions of interest.” The Knepp estate is in the grounds of a castle in Sussex and has become the best-known example of rewilding in the country. The owners ditched their dairy and arable farm to return it to nature, and have seen species return including turtle doves, nightingales and even storks. The pilot scheme will fund up to 15 landowners to rewild their land, but there is scope for more to be included. Successful applicants are due to be announced this week. Some rightwing conservatives including Tory backbencher Steve Baker have said they do not agree with the current administration’s push for rewilding and sustainable farming, vowing to end the incentives to pay farmers to improve nature. They argue that food security is more important than nature. But the environment secretary said the two went hand in hand: “The sustainable farming incentive is already supporting a far more regenerative approach to agriculture, not reducing food security but producing food in a more sustainable way.” There are also fears that the next prime minister could weaken net-zero commitments or ditch them altogether after candidates including Suella Braverman and Kemi Badenoch said they would put climate measures on hold. But Eustice, who is backing Grant Shapps for leader, believes the goal is safe because it is enshrined in law and was in the 2019 Conservative election manifesto. He said: “I’m not concerned about net zero, it’s law. Suella might be saying that, but she’s not going to win. At the end of the day, it’s the law. “It’s what the country wants, it’s what the vast majority of MPs want. The direction of travel is there, the policies are in place. “People will say whatever they think will fire up the base. Whoever ends up leading will be strong on climate because that’s the manifesto.”