News & Stories – Page 6 – Oxford Nature Network

Selected News and Stories

wildflower meadow with fields and trees in distance — Wildflower meadow in Oxfordshire. Photo Yadvinder Malhi

The great significance of observing nature in your back garden

Yadvinder Malhi shares his rediscovery of nature at the local level Like many, I have found solace and refuge in local nature over this year of pandemic and lockdown. When able to escape from Zoom calls and cabin fever, I’ve wandered and exercised in my local floodplain meadow of the Thames. I’ve used books and […]

Nature Networking Coffee morning & talk

Join us on October 22nd 2026 at 10.30 in Seminar rooms 1&2 in the Oxford Martin School for refreshments and pastries, at 11am our speaker will join us for an informal talk. 4 million UK votes for nature. The Why and How of school-based nature education (a brief introduction). Kim Polgreen. Dept. of Education & […]

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Would a whitelist work better to regulate the world’s wildlife...

Dr Dan Challender and Dr Amy Hinsley discuss a new paper in which they evaluate the potential of ‘reverse listing’ to regulate international wildlife trade, highlighting that this approach is not a panacea. Globally, people use and trade at least 50,000 wild species for food, medicinal products, construction materials, and to support their livelihoods, among […]

Inspired by Nature. Powered by People

Celebrating a Remarkable Nature Festival 2026. On Saturday 27 June, as Oxfordshire experienced one of the hottest days of the year, hundreds of people came together for something worth celebrating: a festival that connected people with nature, with each other and with the inspiring work taking place to protect our environment. Despite the heatwave, The […]

A complete cross-department network

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

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An Indian village went from hunting Amur falcons to being...

Diogo Veríssimo, University of Oxford and Sahila Kudalkar, Columbia University Wildlife conservation is an exercise in human persuasion. It may seem counterintuitive that we hold the keys to the survival of wildlife, but 98% of all threatened species are threatened exclusively by human activities such as pollution, invasive species or habitat loss. Influencing human behaviour […]

Wild or manicured? Why we disagree about messy natures

Current aspirations for nature recovery to address biodiversity loss and climate change involve changing what landscapes look like What is considered neat or messy impacts on action and policy changes Nature recovery activities are highly politicised and resisted Publicised movements for messier gardens and environments can help shift public opinion to accepting less orderly environments […]

COP16 Colombia, a newcomer’s reflection

By Yadvinder Malhi In late October 2024, the UN Convention on Biodiversity held its biennial large meeting (the Conference of Parties, or COP). This convention is a sister of the better known one on climate change, both birthed in Rio in 1992, but until the last few years has languished in relative obscurity. This all […]

US election: Trump is threatening to turn back the tide...

Stephen Lezak, University of Oxford and Barbara Haya, University of California, Berkeley The Cuyahoga River, which runs through downtown Cleveland, Ohio, used to catch fire every decade or so. It started in the 1860s, when the river became choked with industrial waste, and the conflagrations continued all the way until the 1960s – the same […]

Why is the Biodiversity Cop seen as the poor relative...

Professor Yadvinder Malhi, is at Cop 16 and commented on why Biodiversity has been slow to get on the agenda. “I think one of the reasons that the climate change convention really took of after Rio in 1992, whereas the biodiversity convention languished, is that it was easier to tell a straightforward story of climate […]

Volunteering opportunities

With so much biodiversity-related research being carried out around the University we thought it might be an idea to host a page on our website where students/researchers who would like to volunteer their time can match with those of you who need some help. We’ll list all the opportunities on this page, as well as […]

How profits from big pharma’s use of genetic information could...

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. Authors: Eleanor Jane Milner-Gulland, Tasso Leventis Professor of Biodiversity, University of Oxford. Dale Squires, Adjunct Professor of Economics, School of Global Policy and Strategy, University of California, San Diego. Hollie Booth, Strategic Director at The Biodiversity Consultancy, and Postdoctoral […]

Biodiversity Network Coffee Mornings – Michaelmas Term

Thursdays from 10.30 for coffee and pastries, and from 11am an informal biodiversity-related talk and discussion Seminar rooms 1 and 2. Oxford Martin School. December 5th Would YOU like to give an informal presentation this week? December 12th Anant Jani Nature connection with CARE: Countryside Access, Recreation, and Environmental Stewardship. There is a […]

Serious play for serious researchers

Heads are bent forward intently over tables and there is an air of concentration around the room as workshop participants attend to their assigned task, the only sound that satisfying “click” as the small plastic Lego bricks are pressed together. This is the scene at the start of a Lego Serious Play workshop held on […]

Watch our Nature Seminars Series of lectures on line now!

If you’ve missed any of our Nature Seminar Series of Friday lectures you can catch them now on our Youtube channel here. You’ll find a wonderful range of topics from rewilding to human health and wellbeing, and with over 50 lectures and debates on there you’ll be sure to learn something new. Our Seminar Series […]

A surprising new climate benefit is found in tree bark

They’re well known for their carbon storing properties but now scientists have discovered that trees have an additional climate benefit, in their bark. Professor Yadvinder Malhi, Director of the Leverhulme Centre for Nature Recovery, is among an international team of colleagues who have found tree bark surfaces play an important role in removing methane gas […]

The UK’s nature restoration plans have some big holes –...

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. Authors: Eleanor Jane Milner-Gulland, Tasso Leventis Professor of Biodiversity, University of Oxford, Nathalie Pettorelli Professor, Conservation Biology, Zoological Society of London Have you heard anything about nature as a political priority in the upcoming UK general election? We […]