News & Stories – Oxford Nature Network

Selected News and Stories

Friday Nature Seminar Series Term Card

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How to make sure the nature credits you buy are...

Sophus zu Ermgassen, University of Oxford Global leaders have committed to halting and reversing the ongoing degradation of nature within the next few decades. But with tight public budgets, governments around the world are looking towards nature markets as one way to attract more private investment into nature. Nature markets are systems for measuring an […]

What happens if you try to map an entire country’s...

Alice Stuart, Postdoctoral Researcher at the Leverhulme Centre for Nature Recovery explores some of the work being carried out within the CBA Reimagining Nature Finance fellowship to understand financial flows to nature. How much finance is flowing in service of life? This feels like it should be a relatively straightforward question, and an important one, […]

Nature Network Coffee Mornings and Seminars – Hilary Term card

22nd Jan – Brigid Hains and Richard Fisher Science communication that makes sense. In this session, two experienced editors from the digital magazine Aeon will share advice and insights on how to develop, pitch and write long-form science essays for a general, global audience. Aeon’s mission is to explore and communicate knowledge that helps us make […]

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The Oxford Nature Network is a network of researchers and practitioners in and around the University working on biodiversity.

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Running in the Rain: Finding Focus at a Writing Retreat...

I’m running down a stony track in drizzling rain under a grey sky, singing nonsense songs* at the top of my voice because there is not another human being within a mile of me. The odd grouse, sheep or belted Galloway cow are the only potential beings to disturb in this wide, heathy landscape. […]

Island reptiles face extinction before they are even studied

A new study has revealed that reptiles confined to islands are facing a double jeopardy. Despite being more likely to go extinct than mainland species, they remain largely ignored by researchers compared to their mainland counterparts. Although islands make up less than 7% of the Earth’s surface, they harbour a disproportionate share of the planet’s biodiversity. […]

India’s 60 million street dogs are turning from village scavengers...

Dasarath Deka / shutterstock Nishant Kumar, University of Oxford Growing up in rural India, my grandmother would feed the village dog half a chapati and a bowl of milk each afternoon, surely insufficient for its needs. The dog survived by scavenging from nearby homes. Years later, living in Delhi, I encountered street dogs refusing biscuits, […]

Why are so few environmental criminals on Interpol’s ‘most wanted’...

Diogo Veríssimo, University of Oxford and Sally Sinclair, University of Kent Environmental crime is big business, often listed among the world’s top five criminal activities, just behind counterfeiting and drug crime. So it would be reasonable to think it is a big priority for global law enforcement. But our new research suggests this is not […]

Free Screening: Tigre Gente

Call for activities for our inaugural Oxford Nature Festival

On Saturday 27 June 2026, we’re holding a festival celebrating nature, community, creativity, and discovery, right in the heart of Oxford. Events will take place at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History, the Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities, and outside in nearby green spaces. Across the University, and throughout Oxfordshire more widely, there is so […]

Annual One Lecture

Mapping forest resilience hotspots in South America

Researchers from Oxford’s Environmental Change Institute have developed a new way to assess the resilience of South America’s temperate forests — identifying where ecosystems are most likely to withstand environmental change, and where they may be most vulnerable. The study, led by Xiongjie Deng, ECI PhD student, and published in the International Journal of Applied […]

Professor Yadvinder Malhi named on ENDS Report Power List 2025

Congratulations to our colleague Yadvinder Malhi, Centre Director of the Leverhulme Centre for Nature Recovery, Professor of Ecosystem Science at the Environmental Change Institute, School of Geography and the Environment, and Senior Research Fellow at Oriel College, for appearing on the ENDS Power List for the second year running! A supporter of Yadvinder’s describes him as […]

Natalie Duffus recognised on the ENDS POWER LIST 2025

Congratulations to Natalie Duffus for being recognised on the 2024 the Ends Power List as an unsung hero! Asked to qualify Natalie Duffus’s contribution to the UK environmental sector, a nominator describes her as “a powerhouse in increasing public awareness around the ecological impacts of biodiversity net gain, and how to improve the policy both […]

Weed or wildflower – a case for ragworts

Written by Dr Cecilia Dahlsjӧ. A sea of wildflowers glistens in the morning dew, their petals slowly unfurling as they awaken from the stillness of the night. The sun warms the wings of hungry pollinators whose hum signals the start of a new day. What if these wildflowers weren’t the familiar faces of daisies and […]

How hedgehog droppings can be used to study biodiversity at...

By Dr Sophie Lund Rasmussen (Dr Hedgehog), WildCRU, Department of Biology Biodiversity is vanishing before our eyes. It is important to monitor biodiversity loss to optimise and target the conservation efforts needed to mitigate this situation. But how? By using hedgehog poo of course! During my many nights of fieldwork radio-tracking the charismatic European hedgehogs […]