Caitlin Hafferty

Caitlin researches the governance, politics, and democratic participation aspects of nature recovery and Nature-based Solutions. She conducts transdisciplinary research that is theoretically-informed and has real-world impact, working in collaboration with government, private business, charities, social enterprises and community organisations.

Her postdoctoral research, funded by the Leverhulme Centre for Nature Recovery and NERC-funded Agile Initiative, focuses on the governance of nature recovery for transformative change in the UK, drawing primarily on case study landscapes and partnerships in the Scottish Highlands. She developed the Recipe for Engagement (RfE) guidance which has since informed strategies for participatory governance in private rewilding companies, including Highlands Rewilding and Nattergal, as well as local nature recovery partnerships, and landscape recovery schemes.

Caitlin’s background spans conceptual and applied social science research combining public participation and democracy, participatory geographies, digital engagement, environmental policy and practice. Her work has focused on a range of environmental decision-making contexts across the UK, from small-scale community projects, to landscape-scale partnerships, government departments and agencies. She is is currently an expert advisor and consultant on a range of projects for best practice engagement in restoration and rewilding, community benefits standards for nature finance, and the implications of private finance for high-integrity nature-based solutions.

You can access Caitlin’s evidence-led practitioner guidance, podcasts, and other resources on effective engagement in nature recovery here:

• The ‘Recipe for Engagement’ (RfE) guidance for effective public and community engagement in nature recovery and nature-based solutions (NbS). This guidance has been co-designed with practitioners involved in the strategy and on-the-ground delivery of a range of nature recovery and NbS initiatives in the UK, producing evidence-led recommendations that are relevant, actionable, and adaptable in policy and practice.
  • The Recipe for Engagement (RfE) launch webinar – which had over 270 registered participants from research, policy, and practice – outlines the core components of the RfE, and includes a Q&A with practitioners.
  • The RfE launch webinar slides can be accessed here.
• The RfE has helped to inform community engagement strategies in flagship rewilding projects in the UK, notably:
  • The Highlands Rewilding Community Engagement Roadmap.
    The Nattergal Report on Stakeholder Engagement Best Practice for Landscape-scale Nature Recovery (led by Joshua Davis, Countryside and Community Research Institute). A blog post summary of the report’s impact is here.
• The impact of the RfE guidance has been discussed in several podcasts, where we explore how engagement can be leveraged to deliver integrated social, ecological, and climate benefits from rewilding and nature restoration at scale. This includes:
  • ‘Rewilding: People and Participation’ with guests from Highlands Rewilding and the CCRI.
  • ‘Stakeholder engagement for landscape-scale nature recovery’ with guests from Nattergal and the CCRI.
• Natural England report on embedding an evidence-led, best practice culture of engagement in environmental organisations.

You can find a full list of Caitlin’s publications here.