This project aims to promote Nature-based Solutions (NbS) and nature recovery initiatives that are more effective, equitable, and financially sustainable by leveraging participatory governance processes. It is part of two broader projects, the NERC-funded Agile Initiative project on ‘Scaling up NbS in the UK’ and the Leverhulme Centre for Nature Recovery, and is being conducted in collaboration with the Nature-based Solutions Initiative. The solutions-focused and interdisciplinary project aims to deliver relevant, timely, and actionable evidence and recommendations for practitioners and policy-makers in the UK.
NbS has gained international attention for their potential to deliver multiple sustainability goals by addressing climate change, biodiversity decline, inequality and human well-being issues. However, it is crucial that NbS are designed and implemented in a holistic, integrated, and inclusive way to deliver multiple benefits while addressing trade-offs between goals. At its core, this approach involves ensuring that NbS treats humans and nature as interconnected, while tackling unequal power dynamics and promoting socially ‘just’ outcomes. This project ultimately aims to promote more integrated approaches to facilitate interconnected thinking among decision-makers, and more joined-up policy support and implementation at local, regional, and national scales.
The main project activities and outcomes include:
- Co-designing the project with partners from across the public, private and third sectors in the UK. Partners included Highlands Rewilding, Nattergal, Defra, Natural England, Environment Agency, BBOWT, National Trust, NFU, RBG Kew, UK CEH, WWF, University of Aberdeen and others. This helped to shape the research and deliver outputs that are relevant, useful, and actionable in policy and practice.
- Working as part of an interdisciplinary team to produce the Nature-based Solutions Knowledge Hub, which is an integrated one-stop resource to guide users through the process of governing, designing, and funding NbS and monitoring the outcomes. Specifically, this project delivered the Recipe for Engagement (RfE), a new flexible guide for the participatory governance that can be applied and adapted to a wide range of nature recovery and NbS projects.
- Working closely with Highlands Rewilding to design and implement a ‘Community Engagement Roadmap’, which sets out some key principles and practical steps for engaging and delivering community benefits from rewilding projects. This project team also collaborated with Joshua Davis (lead author) at the Countryside and Community Research Institute to produce an evidence report and guide for Nattergal on ‘Best Practice Engagement in Landscape-scale Nature Recovery Projects’.
- Engaged with policy-makers and produced a policy brief on ‘Embedding nature recovery in the Levelling-up and Regeneration Bill’ which was submitted as evidence to the House of Lords.
In addition to the impact-focused outputs, this project is publishing a series of academic papers on the politics, power, and participation dynamics of NbS and nature recovery.
Recipe for Engagement guidance
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WEBINAR: Unlocking the power of engagement for nature recovery and nature-based solutions
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