News & Stories – Page 8 – 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 & […]

Nature Network Newsletter.

Week commencing: 12/10 The Nature Network issues a weekly newsletter during term time, which we email to our network. We aim to let you know about relevant events and opportunities, so do look out for it in your inbox. If you would like to sign up to receive it you can do so here. If […]

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 […]

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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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3 mena and a woman with a wolly hat on stand under a multi coloured umbrella — BBC's Countryfile comes to Wytham Woods

BBC Countryfile investigates the ash dieback at Wytham Woods

The threat of ash dieback on our ecosystems was the focus on BBC Countryfile Professor Yadvinder Malhi, Ecosystems Research Programme Leader at the Environmental Change Institute (ECI) and Tom Atkins, Researcher at the ECI’s Leverhulme Centre for Nature Recovery, shared what they’ve learned during a four-year study at the University-owned Wytham Woods. BBC presenters Hamza […]

Catch Wytham Woods on Countryfile on 5 November

Earlier in October, the BBC Countryfile team returned once more to Wytham Woods to film for an upcoming episode, part of the 12-month Wild Britain initiative that’s aimed at galvanising support for saving the UK’s endangered wildlife. Ellie Harrison and Hamza Yassin visited the Woods, with the latter climbing into their canopy to learn more […]

Green fields, hedegrows and blue sky above — Could the next State of Nature report bring more positive news?

State of Nature: Ecologists have collected the evidence, now it’s...

In an article written for the British Ecological Society, Yadvinder Malhi reflects on the Sate of Nature report, published yesterday, September 27th. The latest State of Nature Report rings yet another alarm bell on the biodiversity crisis in the UK, showing major declines in many species since monitoring began in 1970. Since this date, species […]

2 mean and a woman sit behind a table, they are in conversations while an audience watches — EJ Milner-Gulland chaired the debate at the OUNHM

The Monbiot-Savory event: We need a common language if anyone...

The Leverhulme Centre for Nature Recovery is interested in promoting a wide variety of views and opinions on nature recovery from researchers and practitioners. If you are interested in writing for us please email us at naturerecovery@ouce.ox.ac.uk. The views, opinions and positions expressed within this guest blog post are those of the author alone, they […]

buttercups and wildflower meadow, trees in the distance — Wildflower meadow

How to help wildlife thrive in our urban grasslands, verges...

Meadows Buglife: Managing urban areas for pollinators Buglife: Management of wildflower-rich grasslands for insects Plantlife: Meadow hub Plantlife: No Mow May Monmouthshire County Council ‘Nature isn’t Neat’ initiative (part of the Gwent Green Grid) Biodiversity Wales: Planting for Pollinators Wild Oxfordshire: Community Resources page. Includes signs to download (“Please don’t mow…”) Long Mead’s Thames Valley […]

ladybrid on thistles — Ladybird on thistles

Urban grassland & verge guidelines

Why do we need to change the way we manage urban grass? Although uniformly short grass used to be seen as a sign of good management, people now are becoming more aware of the value of nature and the need for more nature-friendly management techniques. Frequent mowing removes flowers that provide nectar for bees and […]

an image will be here soon. — An image will be here soon

Green Action Week: Professor EJ Milner-Gulland discusses how the whole...

As Tasso Leventis Professor of Biodiversity, I work broadly on ways to make humanity’s relationship to nature more sustainable. That’s why I was so proud to be a part of the process that led to the University committing to biodiversity net gain by 2035, one of the two high-level goals of the Environmental Sustainability Strategy (alongside net […]

Organisations making their catering more sustainable can make genuine positive...

Organisations making their catering more sustainable can make genuine positive contributions, though it will take extremely ambitious action to come close to fully mitigating biodiversity loss. A study published in Nature Food showed how Lady Margaret Hall (LMH), a college at the University of Oxford, can develop a bold roadmap for delivering reduced biodiversity impacts from their […]

young man and woman stand in front of a colourful sut-out reading COPY15 — Seth Thomas and Audrey Wagner at COP15. Photo credit NbSI

The hopes of the Nature based Solutions Initiative team and...

This week, the much anticipated 15th Conference of Parties (COP15) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) kicks off in Montreal and will run to 19 December. This is an opportunity for the global community to come together to discuss urgent issues related to the protection of nature and its biodiversity. The primary purpose of the conference […]

ESSH text on the left and view of tree canopy on the right — Download the report here

BUILDING BRIDGES: ENGAGING THE ENVIRONMENTAL SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES

Social and environmental challenges are deeply interwoven. Responding to overlapping concerns about climate change, biodiversity loss and inequality is not merely a scientific or technical enterprise, but also a deeply political, economic, moral and social endeavour Generating fair and effective responses requires a bridging and blending of different academic disciplines. This booklet outlines some recent […]

flower graphic — Join the Alliance of Nature-Positive Universities

Universities restoring nature – Join the Alliance of Nature-Positive Universities

UNEP and the University of Oxford are launching a global network of Nature Positive Universities in order to prompt the prioritization of nature and its restoration within the higher education sector; in their operations and supply chains, on campuses and within the cities where they operate. This network will form a major contribution to the […]

pple marching with banner of the world as a melting icecream cone — Photo by Harrison Moore on Unsplash

The natural world is critical to climate – Professor Yadvinder...

The living world is not a sideshow in the climate debate. Our climate benefits from a healthy and flourishing biosphere, just as ecosystems and the diversity of living organisms depend on climate. We have all seen images of distressed animals and devastated regions affected by flooding, fire and rising temperatures. They show real decline in […]