Publications

Nature seminar Series: 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.

Nature seminar Series: 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.

A Recipe for Engagement in Nature-based Solutions and Nature Recovery

Engagement is a cornerstone for Nature Recovery (NR) and Nature-based Solutions (NbS), offering a path to delivering multiple, integrated benefits for people, nature and climate. It applies to a range of initiatives including conservation, restoration, rewilding, urban greening, community gardening, sustainable forestry and agriculture. Engagement can involve approaches like consultation, collaboration, partnership working, and co-design: it is ultimately about how people can work together to deliver for nature. The power of engagement lies in its ability to foster more inclusive decisionmaking, build trust and transparency, and empower communities while improving environmental outcomes and enhancing democratic participation.

From Worms to Flowers

Dive into the fascinating world of nature with ‘From Worms to Flowers,’ an educational pack crafted for schools and beyond.

This engaging resource, produced by the Cultural Programme in partnership with The Story Museum, Leverhulme Centre for Nature Recovery and Oxford Botanic Garden and Arboretum, forms a part of the ‘Everything is Connected’ season. This initiative unites academics, authors, and artists in a joint effort to envisage a future where all elements of nature are interlinked. The video, featuring insights from experts at the University of Oxford, encourages viewers to explore and appreciate the natural world around them. It demonstrates how every component, from minuscule worms to the most vibrant flowers, contributes significantly to our ecosystem. Designed to educate and inspire, this video is a compelling tool for schools, providing educators and students alike with a deeper understanding of environmental interconnectivity. It also extends its reach beyond the classroom, inviting everyone to partake in this enlightening journey and to contribute to a more sustainable and interconnected future. ‘From Worms to Flowers’ is not just an educational experience; it’s a call to view the world as a harmonious and interconnected system, where each part plays a crucial role in the grand tapestry of life.

A short film has been produced in conjunction with this pack and can be watched here: From Worms to Flowers

From Worms to Flowers, an educational video crafted for children, schools, and parents.

Dive into the fascinating world of nature with ‘From Worms to Flowers,’ an educational video crafted for children, schools, and parents.

This engaging resource, produced by the Cultural Programme in partnership with The Story Museum, Leverhulme Centre for Nature Recovery and Oxford Botanic Garden and Arboretum, forms a part of the ‘Everything is Connected’ season. This initiative unites academics, authors, and artists in a joint effort to envisage a future where all elements of nature are interlinked. The video, featuring insights from experts at the University of Oxford, encourages viewers to explore and appreciate the natural world around them. It demonstrates how every component, from minuscule worms to the most vibrant flowers, contributes significantly to our ecosystem. Designed to educate and inspire, this video is a compelling tool for schools, providing educators and students alike with a deeper understanding of environmental interconnectivity. It also extends its reach beyond the classroom, inviting everyone to partake in this enlightening journey and to contribute to a more sustainable and interconnected future. ‘From Worms to Flowers’ is not just an educational experience; it’s a call to view the world as a harmonious and interconnected system, where each part plays a crucial role in the grand tapestry of life.

A teaching guide has been produced in conjunction with this film and can be downloaded here: From Worms to Flowers Learning Pack

A Recipe for Engagement in Nature-based Solutions and Nature Recovery

Engagement is a cornerstone for Nature Recovery (NR) and Nature-based Solutions (NbS), offering a path to delivering multiple, integrated benefits for people, nature and climate. It applies to a range of initiatives including conservation, restoration, rewilding, urban greening, community gardening, sustainable forestry and agriculture. Engagement can involve approaches like consultation, collaboration, partnership working, and co-design: it is ultimately about how people can work together to deliver for nature. The power of engagement lies in its ability to foster more inclusive decisionmaking, build trust and transparency, and empower communities while improving environmental outcomes and enhancing democratic participation.

The first edition of this guidance was funded by the Agile Initiative. The Agile Initiative is supported by the Natural Environment Research Council as part of the Changing the Environment Programme – NERC grant reference number NE/W004976/1

Nature seminar Series:Mycorrhizas and ecosystem functioning – Dr Laura Martinez-Suz,

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.

The role of natural capital in the green economy: LCNR response

The House of Commons’ Environmental Audit Committee launched an inquiry, ‘The role of natural capital in the green economy’, in August 2023.  The Leverhulme Centre for Nature Recovery submitted a response, written by Dr Sophus zu Ermgassen.

Our submission proposed:

• An accelerated timetable to agree and implement independent evaluation systems (particularly on-site gains for BNG) to secure high-quality nature recovery, and to prevent problems arising from reliance on self-reported assessments alone,
• Government support for local authorities to pursue developers responsible for non-compliance. This would include provision long-term support for monitoring and enforcing planning conditions associated with nature recovery,
• For BNG, revision of the enforcement threshold from the currently unrealistically-high ‘serious harm to a local public amenity’ to a condition that is more closely aligned with nature recovery objectives; and
• Adoption of the guidance provided in the industry’s best practice guide and best practice Standards (e.g. British Standard 8683: 2021) a condition of planning consent for developments to assist with monitoring and to embed good practice.

Nature Series Seminar: Rewilding, Restoration, and the Future of Nature Recovery – James Bullock

There is much excitement about ‘nature recovery’, with many scientists, conservation practitioners and commentators having opinions about how this might be achieved. While many focus on single solutions, such as ecological restoration, rewilding, land sparing, etc, effective recovery will likely involve ‘pick and mix’ approaches that match local needs and national priorities. I will talk about how we can combine rewilding, restoration and agroecological approaches to give pragmatic solutions for recovery. But, we should not ignore massive constraints on nature recovery, such as extinction debt, fragmented landscapes and loss of ecological complexity. In particular, many discussions on recovery do not engage with the fact that rapid climate change will undermine what can be achieved and will be driving ongoing species loss. Indeed, climate change demands that we re-think conservation aims and approaches, and even how we promote nature recovery. I will talk about our concept of ‘Survival Ecology’ as a way of re-conceptualising conservation in a time of anthropogenic climate change.

Parish Nature Recovery Survey Report

Executive summary

Oxfordshire Treescape Project have been delivering Treescape Opportunity Reports to parish groups since October 2021. Since then the range of resources offered and our ways of working have developed. In April 2023 a survey was sent to the 76 parish groups that had viewed our Opportunity Maps (the majority as pdf Reports, but some in addition or solely as interactive maps on the Land App), the aim of which was to understand what resources for nature recovery are already at parish councils’ disposal; how useful different resources provided by OTP have been; what would most help parishes move forward with nature recovery planning and activities.

Responses were received from representatives of 18 parish groups. Of these, 13 had or were considering a Neighbourhood Plan (NP) within their parish. Nine of these 13 thought it likely or very likely that their NP would support nature recovery in the parish, highlighting that NPs could be a key tool for parishes in nature recovery.

The key theme to emerge was the importance of human connection: the difficulty of engaging with landowners came through strongly, as did the value of volunteers, connections with other groups such as neighbouring parishes and discussions with the Oxfordshire Treescape Project team. Respondents who had good relationships with local landowners described them as among their greatest strengths, but the majority wanted better guidance on how to approach them. Volunteers are highly valued, but respondents felt that volunteers lacked time.

The most used and influential OTP resources were discussions with the team, introductions to relevant people or organisations and the maps, in Opportunity Reports and in the Land App. The maps within the Opportunity Reports were the most used and most useful sections, being used to plan nature recovery and share ideas with parish councils. Some respondents felt that the maps could be improved in terms of accuracy and level of detail.

Emily E. Rampling, Sophus O. S. E. zu Ermgassen, Isobel Hawkins, Joseph W. Bull (2023). Achieving biodiversity net gain by addressing governance gaps underpinning ecological compensation policies. Conservation Biology.

Abstract

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 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 and explore the risks caused by capacity constraints in regulators. However, the magnitude of their effects on the policy’s potential biodiversity impacts 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. Large developments and energy infrastructure are more likely to meet their liability within their own development footprint, and small developments more likely to purchase offsets. We estimate that 27% of all biodiversity units fall within governance gaps that expose them to a high risk of non-compliance. Ideally, more robust governance mechanisms would be implemented to cover on-site biodiversity unit delivery. Alternatively, more of these units could be delivered through the off-site biodiversity offsetting; in the latter case, we estimate that the demand for offsets could rise by a factor of four, increasing the financial contributions generated by BNG for conservation activities on private land. Lastly, we find that 21% of applications contained a simple recurring error in their BNG calculations, half of which have already been accepted by councils, hinting at under-resourcing in councils assessing developments. Our findings demonstrate that resourcing and governance shortfalls risk undermining the policy’s effectiveness at halting biodiversity loss and require addressing to ensure the policy benefits nature.