Publications

Captured sunshine: what can an energetic view of life on Earth tell us about nature decline/recovery

Yadvinder Malhi

This talk explores this potential with a focus on plants, birds and mammals, the best documented taxonomic groups, in the context of terrestrial ecosystems. I draw on examples from Wytham Woods, intact and logged tropical forests in Borneo, and a broad regional examination of sub-Saharan Africa. An energetic approach to understanding life an earth can yield some surprising and provocative insights into our changing biosphere.

WEBINAR: Unlocking the power of engagement for nature recovery and nature-based solutions

This webinar is relevant for anyone working in the on-the-ground delivery, design and/or strategy of a broad range of nature recovery and nature-based solutions projects which aim to benefit both people and nature. This includes conservation, restoration, rewilding, urban greening, community gardening, sustainable forestry, regenerative agriculture, and more. It is aimed at practitioners working on any project which seeks to engage a diversity of stakeholders and relevant parties at different scales including local communities, members of the public, farmers and land managers, non-governmental organisations, charities, businesses, local authorities, and government bodies.

For more information please visit: https://www.agile-initiative.ox.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Recipe-for-Engagement.pdf

Land tenure, deforestation, & monocultures:Menaces to food & territorial justice.

Lena Lazos-Chavero

The fragility and uncertainty of land tenure in many countries have provoked the risks of land grabbing, either for expanding monocultures, accelerating deforestation rates, or for the establishment of protected areas for conservation. Here, Elena Lazos-Chavero concentrates on the consequences of the enlargement of monocultures within the changing dynamics of the food regimes on the food and territorial justice, particularly among small-scale farmers in Mexico.

Recovery of degraded coastal ecosystems requires more than protection.

Tundi Agardy

Recovery of degraded coastal ecosystems requires so much more than protection – how restoration and conservation go hand-in-hand.

Mycorrhizas and ecosystem functioning.

Dr Laura Martinez-Suz, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew

The impact of plants on ecosystem functioning is mediated by mycorrhizas, intimate plant-fungal associations formed by most plants and a diverse subset of soil fungi. Mycorrhizal fungi play a key role in terrestrial ecosystems by enhancing plant access to soil nutrients and water but also as regulators of the carbon cycle. However, these belowground fungi are affected by environmental and anthropogenic changes, with potential consequences on the roles they develop in our ecosystems. In this seminar, I will talk about the main drivers and threats of ectomycorrhizal fungal communities in forests, the impact of changes in these communities in forest functioning and the research we are doing to measure, understand and predict the contribution of different mycorrhizal fungi to carbon sequestration in soils for habitat ecosystem assessment.

Sophus zu Ermgassen, Katie Kedward, Andrew Allen, Alexandre Chausson, Michael Clark, Natalie Duffus, Georgina Holmes-Skelton, Mariana Mazzucato, Katherine Simpson, Puninda Thind, and Erik Gomez-Baggethun (2024). Mission-Oriented Public Policy for Nature Recovery. Ecological Economics.

This paper outlines the findings of an expert workshop exploring how policies for delivering nature recovery relate to the policy toolkit applied in mission-oriented strategy, and demonstrate how missions-thinking can be applied to nature recovery in England.

Interdisciplinary Catalyst Activities – Field Work Tennis

In pairs, participants engage in back-and-forth conversations that are constructed to either accept or reject suggestions from the offering partner, with role-playing around an environmental research/restoration theme. This layered activity helps think through interdisciplinary critique as productive—rather than a hinderance—in research design and execution.

More information on the wokshop this activity was developed for here

More info on the Project: Innovative methods to connect and communicate between disciplines

Interdisciplinary Catalyst Activities – Object of Significance

Three groups engage in role-play, each group independently develops their own ‘rituals’ around a provided object, and these are then shared. The activity helps think about research and decision making when meanings placed on objects and ideas in the environment are different or in conflict between groups of people.

More information on the wokshop this activity was developed for here

More info on the Project: Innovative methods to connect and communicate between disciplines

Unlocking the power of engagement for nature recovery and nature-based solutions

The ‘Unlocking the power of engagement for nature recovery and nature-based solutions’ webinar took place on 20th February 2024 and was aimed at anyone working in the on-the-ground delivery, design and/or strategy of a broad range of nature recovery and nature-based solutions projects which aim to benefit both people and nature. This includes conservation, restoration, rewilding, urban greening, community gardening, sustainable forestry, regenerative agriculture, and more.

It is aimed at practitioners working on any project which seeks to engage a diversity of stakeholders and relevant parties at different scales including local communities, members of the public, farmers and land managers, non-governmental organisations, charities, businesses, local authorities, and government bodies.

The guide can be viewed here

Natalie Duffus, Sophus zu Ermgassen (2024). What is Biodiversity Net Gain?. .

On February 12th, England’s ambitious new environmental policy, Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) went live. Underpinned by the Environment Act, this policy lays out the mandatory requirement for new developments to provide a 10% net gain in biodiversity, maintained for at least 30 years. For now, this applies to almost all developments, and will become mandatory for small sites from April 2024, and for Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (NSIPs) from November 2025.

Natalie Duffus and Sophus zu Ermgassen explain what providing a ‘biodiversity net gain’ means.

Large-scale social surveys on people and nature relations: Report on the state of the art in the UK

Jasper Montana, Clare Ferguson and Tom Marshall

Collecting reliable and consistent data about people’s relationship with the natural environment is likely to be crucial to effective policy delivery by governments. Social surveys are a prominent tool in delivering this insight. In the UK, surveys on people’s relationship with nature are run by government bodies, nongovernmental organisations, academic researchers, and others.

This scoping assessment identifies the range of such surveys that are taking place within the UK (as of August 2023) and considers why survey data is being collected and by whom.