Publications

Webinar: Everything you need to know about biodiversity credits

“Everything you need to know about biodiversity credits”, an Impact Mitigation and Ecological Compensation (IMEC) webinar presented by Dr Sophus zu Ermgassen of Oxford University on 16 April 2024.

Nature seminar Series: Does science impact nature conservation policy? Stories of success and failure – Hugh Possingham

Hugh in semi-retirement has 3 jobs: Biodiversity Council’s Co-chief Councillor, Chief Scientist of Accounting for Nature and The University of Queensland. He was the founding Director of The Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Environmental Decisions, the National Environmental Science Program Threatened Species hub and an Australian Research Council Professorial, Laureate and Federation Fellow.

Nature Seminar Series: Global Ecological Shift: for the protection and restoration of biodiversity – Thomas Crowther

Ecologist Thomas Crowther underscores the vital role of nature conservation and restoration in combating biodiversity loss and climate change. In his talk, Crowther will highlight recent scientific advancements, such as the groundbreaking evaluation of global forest carbon potential, and the launch of the SEED, a biocomplexity index, which enables us to understand the variation in biological health across the globe. These initiatives aim to enhance our commitment to nature and empower individuals, companies and governments to make positive contributions towards biodiversity conservation. Through collective action and informed stewardship, Crowther inspires hope for a sustainable future where nature thrives alongside humanity.

Oxfordshire’s greenspace-deprived neighbourhoods

Coordinating author: Martha Crockatt

This report explores Natural England’s Green Infrastructure data to identify neighbourhoods in Oxfordshire experiencing both socio-economic deprivation and poor provision of accessible greenspace, with a view to these neighbourhoods being prioritised in terms of planning, allocation of funding, and effort for improving quality and quantity of accessible greenspace.

Contributors: Matt Witney (Oxfordshire Local Nature Partnership), Alison Smith (University of Oxford), Rosie Rowe (Oxfordshire County Council), Mark Hirons (University of Oxford),  Constance McDermott (University of Oxford), Camilla Burrow (Wild Oxfordshire) and Joseph Gent (University of Oxford).

Oxfordshire’s greenspace-deprived neighbourhoods

A new report which has just been launched explores Natural England’s Green Infrastructure data to identify neighbourhoods in Oxfordshire experiencing both socio-economic deprivation and poor provision of accessible greenspace, with a view to these neighbourhoods being prioritised in terms of planning, allocation of funding, and effort for improving quality and quantity of accessible greenspace.

Research at the interface of indigenous and western science in the Amazonian Peatlands

Our researchers, Aoife Bennet and Jesus Aguirre-Gutierrez, along with partners in Peru are empirically applying an intercultural interdisciplinary mapping methodology “Non Oñamboan Joi” for assessing nature recovery potential in the Amazon.

More about the project here

Huanyuan Zhang-Zheng, Stephen Adu-Bredu, Akwasi Duah-Gyamfi, Sam Moore, Shalom D. Addo-Danso, Lucy Amissah, Riccardo Valentini, Gloria Djagbletey, Kelvin Anim-Adjei, John Quansah, Bernice Sarpong, Kennedy Owusu-Afriyie, Agne Gvozdevaite, Minxue Tang, Maria C. Ruiz-Jaen, Forzia Ibrahim, Cécile A. J. Girardin, Sami Rifai, Cecilia A. L. Dahlsjö, Terhi Riutta, Xiongjie Deng, Yuheng Sun, Iain Colin Prentice, Imma Oliveras Menor & Yadvinder Malhi (2024). Contrasting carbon cycle along tropical forest aridity gradients in West Africa and Amazonia. Nature Communications.

Here we present a detailed field assessment of the carbon budget of multiple forest sites in Africa, by monitoring 14 one-hectare plots along an aridity gradient in Ghana, West Africa. When compared with an equivalent aridity gradient in Amazonia, the studied West African forests generally had higher productivity and lower carbon use efficiency (CUE). The West African aridity gradient consistently shows the highest NPP, CUE, GPP, and autotrophic respiration at a medium-aridity site, Bobiri. Notably, NPP and GPP of the site are the highest yet reported anywhere for intact forests. Widely used data products substantially underestimate productivity when compared to biometric measurements in Amazonia and Africa. Our analysis suggests that the high productivity of the African forests is linked to their large GPP allocation to canopy and semi-deciduous characteristics.

Nature seminar Series: Bending the curves – balancing nature, economy and society, from the bottom up – David Obura

Bending the curve of biodiversity decline, ie. halting and reversing loss, has been adopted as the mission for the Global Biodiversity Framework. While conservation and restoration are necessary to achieve this, they are not sufficient and this talk focuses on the two sets of actions that need far greater attention – a) bending and reversing the drivers of biodiversity decline, which requires primary focus on indirect drivers, in particular overconsumption, and b) redressing equity imbalances. Both entail specific responsibilities and actions, by those who over-consume, and for those who under-consume. Focusing on healthy and sufficient nature at square kilometre scales provides a direct approach to address these issues, providing tangible opportunities to revert financial capital into natural capital to nature, economy and society for a sustainable future.

Nature seminar Series: Building collaborations with Indigenous and Local Communities using Extreme Citizen Science – Jerome Lewis

This talk will describe the work of the Extreme Citizen Science Research Group designing and testing solutions for building effective collaborations with Indigenous People and local communities in the context of local conservation initiatives, extractive industry, human rights abuses, or to address the impacts of climate and environmental change on local livelihoods.