The Oxford Nature Recovery Symposium

27 Mar

You can read the report from the Oxford Nature Recovery Symposium here.

There has been a recent surge of interest in the science of nature recovery in the UK. This aligns with national and international policy pulls, such as the 2021 Environment Act and Town and Country Planning Act, and the Global Biodiversity Framework agreed in Montreal in December 2022. Spatial prioritisation models, underpinned by data on ecosystem services, biodiversity, social and financial costs, have been used to design Nature Recovery Networks and to explore the trade-offs and synergies between imperatives including nature conservation, food production, housing, energy and infrastructure.

However, there is still much to do if science is to effectively inform decision-making. For example, there could be more harmonisation of different approaches to spatial modelling, and there are still major gaps and uncertainties in the underpinning data. The integration of social and ecological dynamics into models is still limited, and scenario analysis does not take into account key system dynamics and feedbacks, including climate change.

Institutional settings and governance are not well integrated. The translation of scientific understanding into usable frameworks and robust metrics is still relatively limited. Some may argue that there is not enough focus on what the science says is actually necessary for ecologically resilient landscapes; while others may argue that it is important to focus on what is feasible and realistic.

In this symposium, we bring together researchers working on the science that could underpin planning for nature recovery with decision-makers and practitioners working within government, industry and civil society, to discuss how science could best be deployed to support decisions for nature recovery. Our aims are to:

• Highlight the work being done by researchers to understand the potential impacts of land use decisions on biodiversity, people, and landscape integrity, both empirical and conceptual and using a range of methodological approaches – in the UK and overseas.
• Explore synergies and gaps in the science currently being carried out by research groups across the country to inform nature recovery in the UK, including Biodiversity Net Gain and the implementation of the Environment Act.
• Understand different perspectives on the main questions which still need to be addressed in order to support effective land use planning in the UK.

Our symposium is small and highly interactive, based around discussion groups rather than speeches. Our aim is to promote collaboration and to support the generation of new ideas. The insights generated will feed directly into the Natural England Conference on Nature Recovery, to be held at the Royal Geographical Society directly afterwards, on 30th and 31st March 2023.

The symposium is co-hosted by: The Leverhulme Centre for Nature Recovery, University of Southampton, University of Exeter, UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, and University of Kent.

With funding from: UKRI Natural Environment Research Council

Spaces are limited. Please contact Gill Metcalfe gill.metcalfe@biology.ox.ac.uk to register your interest in attending

DAY ONE

DAY TWO