Publications

Nature Seminar Series: In praise of the phenotype: Stock-taking and perspectives in plant functional trait ecology

The plant functional trait diversity research programme has expanded dramatically in the past two decades, as a result of the combination of a long-standing interest in fundamental syndromes of adaptive specialization behind the vast variety of form and function observed in nature on the one hand, and the pressing need to inform biodiversity policy in the face of rapid environmental change, on the other. Its first stages, focused on interspecific variability of traits assumed essential for plant growth, survival and reproduction, led to an unprecedented degree of collaboration in tools and communal data, and resulted in important stylized facts. From there, different paths branched out towards intraspecific variability, genomics, demography, biogeography, cascading into other trophic levels, and social perception and values.

Nature Seminar Series: Wildlife, Warriors, and Women Large Carnivore Conservation in Tanzania and beyond – Professor Amy Dickman

Professor Amy Dickman established is the joint CEO of Lion Landscapes, which works to help conserve wildlife in some of the most important biodiversity areas of Africa.  In her talk she discusses the significance of this project, the difficulties of working in an area where witchcraft and mythology abound, and the conservation successes that are already emerging from this important work.

Assessing the Potential of AI for Spatially Sensitive Nature-Related Financial Risks

There is growing recognition among financial institutions, financial regulators and policy makers of the importance of addressing nature-related risks and opportunities. Evaluating and assessing nature-related risks for financial institutions is challenging due to the large volume of heterogeneous data available on nature and the complexity of investment value chains and the various components’ relationship to nature. The dual problem of scaling data analytics and analysing complex systems can be addressed using Artificial Intelligence (AI). We address issues such as plugging existing data gaps with discovered data, data estimation under uncertainty, time series analysis and (near) real-time updates. This report presents potential AI solutions for models of two distinct use cases

Nature Seminar Series: Spirit of the Amazon, Indigenous Peoples of the Xingu

In 2007 our speakers spent six months travelling through the states of Mato Grosso and Pará, navigating the 2,500 kms of the Xingu River. They listened to their indigenous hosts as they told of their struggles and hopes. They shared dreams, they made lifelong friends. Each of the 48 villages they visited asked them to take their message to the world, to tell the kuben (non-indigenous people) about the strong indigenous cultures and the threats they are facing, from farmers, from illegal fires, from mining and from climate change.

The planetary boundaries framework: helpful for shaping human futures?

The framework of planetary boundaries is widely applied to encapsulate the idea that human transformation of the planet is in danger of breaching multiple thresholds in planetary function, leading to dangerous consequences for human futures and for wider life on Earth. It has inspired further concepts, including the “doughnut” model of a safe operating space for humanity. However, specific boundaries are difficult to identify and practically action, and some have argued that a such a boundaries framework hinders developing positive narratives for human and planetary flourishing.

Nature Seminar Series: Climate Change and Rural Livelihoods in Ghana: the impacts, adaptations and barriers – Prof. Philip Antwi-Agyei

This talk focuses on providing an understanding of the adverse impacts of climate change and variability on rural livelihoods in northern Ghana and how these perpetuate existing vulnerability among rural households and communities.

Watch it here

Consultation response: a biodiversity metric for Scotland’s planning system

This response highlights how a biodiversity metric could support Scotland’s unique habitats and nature. It brings together evidence from the application of a statutory biodiversity metric in England to recommend a revised approach for a Scottish context. It draws on evidence from across the Leverhulme Centre for Nature Recovery’s research community.

Consultation response: White Paper on environmental principles, governance and biodiversity targets

Focusing on the Welsh Government’s proposal for a ‘nature positive’ headline target, this response explores how supporting well-functioning ecosystem would be essential to achieve the objective of reversing biodiversity decline and then moving to a recovery of natural systems.

Mapping niches of extension service providers to support nature recovery – a policy briefing

This policy brief sets out the role of agricultural extension services in supporting landscape-scale nature recovery through a novel method of mapping organisational niches and conflicts in service provision.  It uses an example of advice on water pollution, and proposes changes to the provision of advice by organisations.

The Niche Mapper Analytical Framework – technical report

This technical report presents the Niche Mapper analytical framework for visualising the landscape of advice provision for nature recovery. Land managers access advice on land-use changes to support nature recovery, with advice offered by numerous organisations. Organisations have unique motivations for advice provision e.g., regulatory, environmental or financial, leading to crowding within the sector. The Niche Mapper framework, when applied to a set of advisory organisations will produce a visual representation of the niches occupied by those organisations. The framework may be applied at a variety of spatial scales and/or temporal intervals, resulting in analytically comparable outputs.

The results provided by using this framework can support effective policy making and divulge new research directions. An example of how the framework has been applied is illustrated in a case study of organisations providing advice to land managers for the mitigation of diffuse water pollution from agriculture (DWPA).

Rampling, E., zu Ermgassen, S., Hawkins, I., & Bull, J. W. (2023). Improving the ecological outcomes of compensatory conservation by addressing governance gaps: a case study of Biodiversity Net Gain in England. Conservation Biology.

Biodiversity compensation policies have emerged around the world to address the ecological harms of infrastructure expansion, but they have historically experienced weak compliance. The English government is introducing a requirement that all new infrastructure developments demonstrate they achieve a Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG). Previous research has highlighted governance gaps that risk undermining the policy’s ecological outcomes, as well as exploring the risks caused by fundamental capacity constraints in regulators, but the magnitude of their effects on the policy’s potential impacts on biodiversity remains unexplored. We collated BNG information from all new major developments across six early adopter councils from 2020-2022. We quantified the proportion of the biodiversity outcomes promised under BNG which are at risk of non-compliance, explored the variation in strategies that developments use to meet their biodiversity liabilities, and quantified the occurrence of simple errors in the biodiversity metric calculations submitted by project proponents.