Integration Research Theme

Developing a novel Analysis and Decision Platform to integrate nature recovery into land-use and infrastructure planning, and exploring scenarios that can deliver local, national and international commitments to nature, climate change and sustainable development.

About

The emerging proliferation of nature recovery actions need to be coordinated, and the vast amounts of data need to be analysed, in a way that satisfies the wide range of aspirations and values that people and organisations have for nature recovery. We also need to support the delivery of local, national and international ambitions and commitments to nature, health, human rights, food production and climate change mitigation. These commitments have synergies and overlaps, but also trade-offs that need to be exposed and navigated.

To tackle this challenge, we will build an Analysis and Decision Platform that integrates the scientific insights and societal considerations developed though our Ecology and Society Themes, with large and complex data developed through our Scale Theme. State-of-the-art AI tools will help design new approaches for collective decision-making within and across landscapes.

The knowledge system will first be applied and tested in detail in our Case Studies. The system will enable us to connect human insights with multi-scalar datasets to inform local decision making and integrate local outcomes with global drivers and targets. This will allow us to investigate the design features of new forms of collective intelligence and will, thus, become a testbed for governance and finance innovations for nature recovery.

In this theme we will also explore how synergies and conflicts between nature recovery, other social and cultural values, and other development objectives that compete for land (agriculture, urbanisation, infrastructure) can be integrated at different spatial scales. We will also explore how different elements of nature recovery combine and scale, leading to integrated strategies for nature that match local and organisational contexts and goals, building resilience for ecosystems and society, while also contributing to national and international goals.

Theme lead

Michael white background
Michael Obersteiner
EJ in museum
EJ Milner-Gulland

Projects

Theme outputs

    Response to questions in the Planning Reform Working Paper on Development and Nature Recovery

    Authors: Alison Smith, Natalie Duffus, Wenjing (Wendee) Zhang. 

    Changes proposed to England’s planning system are intended to support increased housebuilding and economic growth. In December 2024, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) invited comments on a working paper on development and nature recovery (that this was not a formal public consultation). LCNR submitted its response in February 2025. In it, LCNR welcomed the move to a more strategic approach, but also identifed some significant areas of concern including the risks to natural systems, integration with other policies and weakened protections for habitats and species. LCNR’s main recommendation is that environmental issues must be taken into account earlier in the planning process. There should be a focus on the location and design of new developments, to ensure that they are built around existing natural species and habitats while avoiding damage to those assets. Developers should work with local partners and citizens to bring in their knowledge, views and values, to deliver high quality developments that support flourishing local communities and economies.

    Report
    LCNR supported
    • Integration

    zu Ermgassen, S.O., Hawkins, I., Lundhede, T. et al. (2025). The current state, opportunities and challenges for upscaling private investment in biodiversity in Europe. Nature Ecology and Evolution.

    European countries have committed to ambitious upscaling of privately funded nature conservation. We review the status and drivers of biodiversity finance in Europe. By implementing semistructured interviews with 25 biodiversity finance key informants and three focus groups across Europe, we explore opportunities and challenges for upscaling private investment in nature. Opportunities arise from macroeconomic and regulatory changes, along with various technological and financial innovations and growing professional experience. However, persistent barriers to upscaling include the ongoing lack of highly profitable investment opportunities and the multitude of risks facing investors, including political, ecological and reputational risks influencing supply and demand of investment opportunities. Public policy plays the foundational role in creating and hindering these mechanisms. Public policy can create nature markets and investment opportunities, meanwhile agricultural subsidies and poor coordination between public funding sources undermine the supply of return-seeking investment opportunities. Investors demand derisking investments from uncertainties; in part caused by political uncertainty. These markets require profound state intervention to enable upscaling whilst achieving positive ecological outcomes; private investment will probably not upscale without major public policy change and public investment.

    Publications
    LCNR supported
    • Integration

    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

     

    Report
    LCNR associated
    • Integration
See all outputs for this theme

News & events