News & Stories – Page 2 – 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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Nature-friendly farming budget swells in UK – but cuts elsewhere...

Written by Nathalie Seddon Nature in the UK appeared to receive a rare funding boost in the June spending review, with the government setting a spending target of up to £2 billion a year for England’s environmental land management (ELM) scheme by 2028-29. By steering public funds toward farmers who restore hedgerows, soils and wetlands, […]

Acoustic monitoring fieldwork in the Scottish Highlands

We have just completed two weeks of successful data collection in Caledonian pinewood in the Scottish Highlands. Using passive acoustic monitoring to survey bats and birds, and trialling a method for assessing invertebrates. As often happens with fieldwork, we had a clear reminder that you should always expect the unexpected and be prepared to adapt […]

Bridging Worlds: Reflections on the role of academia in addressing...

In a world facing accelerating biodiversity loss, Oxford Martin Visiting Fellow Leah Gerber hosted a panel conversation that brought together different voices focused on the role of academia in conservation. This grew from a January talk on Understanding pathways of knowledge to action in biodiversity conservation and a February talk about knowledge production for decision-making […]

From Urgency to Participation: It is important that nature recovery...

Allegra Bundy, MSc student in Biodiversity, Conservation and Management, reflects on the participatory process and key findings of her dissertation project, ‘From Urgency to Participation: Navigating Complexities in Nature Recovery in the Scottish Highlands’. The project, which was awarded a distinction, was supervised by Dr Caitlin Hafferty and supported by the Leverhulme Centre for Nature […]

Biodiversity Network Coffee Mornings – Trinity Term

8th May: GLAM and biodiversity: Partnering for a sustainable future – Jon Ray The Gardens, Libraries, and Museums (GLAM) have set a biodiversity net gain target in line with the University’s goals. GLAM occupies over 50 buildings across Oxford, cares for over 21 million objects, specimens, and printed items, and receives over 3.5 million visitors […]

Nature Seminar Series – Trinity Term

Friday 6th May: Transforming Nature-based Solutions – Nathalie Seddon, University of Oxford Nature-based Solutions (NbS) are increasingly hailed as a means of tackling climate and biodiversity crises while benefiting society. Yet they’re often reduced to carbon-offset schemes or narrowly focused projects, overlooking their power for deeper systemic change. In this talk, I will explore how […]

Sophus zu Ermgassen features in new Natural History Museum exhibition.

Oxford University researcher, Sophus zu Ermgassen appears in a wonderful new, free and permanent exhibition in London’s Museum of Natural History. You never need an excuse to visit this magnificent museum, and this exhibit should definitely be on your list of things to see when you next visit. Packed with contemporary science from our world-leading […]

Why ‘de-extinct’ dire wolves are a Trojan horse to hide...

Rich Grenyer, University of Oxford With wildlife populations globally 73% smaller on average than in 1970 and large mammals missing from much of the world, surely there’s never been a better time to “de-extinct” species? US biotech company Colossal Biosciences Inc claimed to do just that recently by resurrecting the dire wolf from Game of […]

Exploring Kenya’s Savannas: Insights from Megha Ojha’s Fieldwork

Leverhulme Centre for Nature Recovery postdoctoral researcher, Megha Ojha, recently embarked on an inspiring journey to Kenya. Here she visited the Natural State Research Centre, a non-profit organization actively working in the Kenyan savannas, a region of unparalleled ecological significance. Megha is a postdoctoral researcher in the Ecosystems Lab in the Environmental Change Institute, where […]

From Greening to Wellbeing

Researcher Wendee Zhang presented her research at a recent Healthy Ecosystems Restoration in Oxfordshire (HERO) meeting this week, she discusses spatial and social-economic disparities in school outdoor greenness and the impact on mental wellbeing and school attendance in children and adolescents, you can watch it here now.

man with a beard sits in a field with some long grasses in front of him, a border collie dog sits beside him — Professor David Macdonald CBE, FRSE. Credit: Cody Altizer

Linnean Medal 2025 awarded to wildlife biologist Professor David Macdonald

Professor David Macdonald CBE Professor David Macdonald, who founded the Department of Biology’s Wildlife Conservation Research Unit (WildCRU), has been awarded the Linnean Medal for long-standing and significant contributions to natural sciences. Through almost 40 years of wildlife research at WildCRU, David has contributed extensively to studies of a wide range of species including foxes, […]

Woman with a hat on looking through binoculars, green hills behind — Photo by Anna Keibalo on Unsplash

FIELDWORK RESEARCH ASSISTANTS WITH THE DEPARTMENT OF BIOLOGY, UNIVERSITY OF...

We are recruiting up to three short-term research assistants this spring/summer to assist with biodiversity data collection near Oxford. Fieldwork assistants will join a small team surveying insects, plants, mammals and birds at Begbroke, north of Oxford, where the University of Oxford is planning a major infrastructure project. We’re looking for people with fieldwork experience, […]