Publications

Isobel Hawkins, Talitha Bromwich, Jean-Baptiste Jouffray, Thomas B. White, Joseph W. Bull, Faye Chang, E.J. Milner-Gulland, and Sophus zu Ermgassen (2026). PREPRINT: The Biodiversity Commitments of Earth’s Keystone Corporations: Current Limitations, Untapped Potential and Future Directions. .

Over the past 50 years, large transnational “keystone” corporations have concentrated power and gained significant influence over the world’s resource reserves, production and trade. The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework emphasizes the crucial role of businesses in setting and disclosing targets to mitigate their impact on nature. In this study, we identified 180 keystone corporations from highly concentrated sectors with significant environmental impacts and assessed their biodiversity commitments. Our findings reveal that while 79% of firms have made some form of biodiversity pledge, only 13% have reported sufficiently detailed, transparent and specific commitments (“robust commitments”) to allow others to assess if the targets have been met – a key prerequisite of accountability. We discuss future directions and underscore the urgent need for companies, governments, and civil society – including the research community – to work collaboratively to develop, implement, and monitor credible corporate strategies that drive meaningful action for nature.
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Theo Stanley , Mark Hirons , Jonathon Turnbull , Jamie Lorimer , Eric Mensah Kumeh , Caitlin Hafferty , Lea May Anderson , Constance L. McDermott (2025). Just nature recovery: A framework for centring multispecies and multi-dimensional justice in land management. Environmental Science & Policy.

Highlights

• Justice considerations can be overlooked in the planning and delivery of nature recovery projects.
• Multispecies justice and multi-dimensional justice offer alternative framings of justice and how it can be achieved.
• Integrating MSJ and MDJ approaches can inform nuanced analyses of nature recovery projects.
• We consider the different justice concerns in a range of examples from Scottish nature recovery.
• Historicizing contexts is crucial for highlighting justice concerns and creating more equitable governance alternatives.

Maria B. Millsa,b , Yadvinder Malhic , Robert M. Ewersb , Lip Khoon Khoc,d, Yit Arn Tehe , Sabine Bothf , David F. R. P. Burslemg , Noreen Majalaph , Reuben Nilush , Walter Huaraca Huascoc,d , Rudi Cruzi,j , Milenka M. Pillcoj , Edgar C. Turnerk , Glen Reynoldsl , and Terhi Riuttab,c,d (2022). Tropical forests post-logging are a persistent net carbon source to the atmosphere. PNAS.

Carbon sources and sinks in recovering logged forests

Are recovering logged forests a carbon sink due to increased tree growth rates or a carbon source due to carbon losses from soil organic matter and deadwood? Our research shows that sources outweigh sinks for at least the first decade after logging.

Yadvinder Malhi, Terhi Riutta, Oliver R. Wearn, Nicolas J. Deere, Simon L. Mitchell, Henry Bernard, Noreen Majalap, Reuben Nilus, Zoe G. Davies, Robert M. Ewers & Matthew J. Struebig (2021). Logged tropical forests have amplified and diverse ecosystem energetics. Nature.

Metabolic approach to forest ecosystem health

Do metabolic ecology approaches offer a useful new approach to assessing ecosystem health and nature recovery? Our research uses areas of old growth and selectively logged forest to assess this approach.

Ryan Veryard, Jinhui Wu, Michael J. O’Brien, Rosila Anthony, Sabine Both6, David F.R.P. Burslem, Bin Chen, Elena Fernandez-Miranda Cagigal, H. Charles J. Godfray, Elia Godoong, Shunlin Liang, Philippe Saner, Bernhard Schmid, Yap Sau Wai, Jun Xie, Glen Reynolds, and Andy Hector (2023). Positive effects of tree diversity on tropical forest restoration in a field-scale experiment. https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adf0938.

Active restoration of selectively logged forest

The dipterocarp trees that dominate the lowland forests of Southeast Asia have traits that mean they may be slow to naturally recover from selective-logging and other disturbances. Can active restoration techniques accelerate forest recovery? Our research uses the experimental treatments of Sabah Biodiversity Experiment to assess the effectiveness of replanting with different species and of ‘climber cutting’ – the removal of climbing liana species.

Charles J. Marsh, Edgar C. Turner, Benjamin Wong Blonder, Boris Bongalov, Sabine Both, Rudi S. Cruz , Dafydd M. O. Elias, David Hemprich-Bennett, Palasiah Jotan, Victoria Kemp, Ully H. Kritzler, Sol Milne, David T. Milodowski, Simon L. Mitchell , Milenka Montoya Pillco, Matheus Henrique Nunes, Terhi Riutta, Samuel J. B. Robinson, Eleanor M. Slade, Henry Bernard, David F. R. P. Burslem, Arthur Y. C. Chung, Elizabeth L. Clare, David A. Coomes, Zoe G. Davies, David P. Edwards, David Johnson, Pavel Kratina, Yadvinder Malhi, Noreen Majalap, Reuben Nilus, Nicholas J. Ostle, Stephen J. Rossiter, Matthew J. Struebig, Joseph A. Tobias, Mathew Williams, Robert M. Ewers, Owen T. Lewis, Glen Reynolds, Yit Arn Teh, Andy Hector (2025). Tropical forest clearance impacts biodiversity and function, whereas logging changes structure. Science.

The natural value of recovering selectively logged forests
Large areas of forest in Borneo have been selectively logged and are now undergoing recovery – how do these selectively logged forests differ from their undisturbed old growth counterparts and what are the consequences if they are converted to oil palm plantation?

Summary of thesis: Recognitional equity in access to and planning of urban green spaces: How socio-economic deprivation shapes community values and participation in place-based governance.

Equity of access to, and planning of, Urban Green Spaces (UGS) is an area of growing interest in a period in which urban greening is intertwined with equity issues in socially diverse urban centres. While efforts to widen communities’ spatial access to UGS and procedural representation in their planning through more inclusive place-based governance arrangements have been made, little attention has been paid to the recognitional dimension of equity, here understood as recognition of communities’ lived experience of deprivation and historic relations with institutions. This thesis takes an intra- and inter-community comparative approach between three areas of Oxford with low, mid-high and high deprivation levels, and varying types of neighbourhood or regeneration plans.

Art and Nature in The Leys

A free, drop-in family-friendly event led by researchers Martha Crockatt and Mattia Troiano, developed in collaboration with Natasha Summer, a local community champion, and in partnership with the Oxfordshire African Caribbean Multicultural Society. It was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council’s Festival of Social Science.

The Screaming Sky: The strange allure of swifts. Charles Foster

Swifts inhabit the air as few other organisms do. This talk is an account of an attempt by an earthbound man to follow them there: on their migration routes to and from Africa, their winter travels, dodging African storms and hunting insects that spring up with the rains, and in their brief summer stay in the skies and eaves of Oxford

Lost Nature

Research from Wild Justice shows only 53% of on-site environmental measures legally secured through the development process are actually delivered in reality.

Read the Wild Justice Lost Nature Summary here

LCNR 2023/4 at a glance

This infographic shows the Centre’s achievements for the 2023/2024 reporting year