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Bournemouth University's (BU) pioneering analytical method of mapping ecosystem services and their associated values has led to significant impacts on environmental policy, planning and implementation at a global scale. Research informed the Convention of Biodiversity's (CBD) strategic plan for 2011-20 and its target to restore 15% of degraded ecosystems. Planned delivery of this target employs the use of Forest Landscape Restoration (FLR); an approach developed, tested and refined though BU research. Delivery using this method is already underway, with 50 million hectares committed by individual countries. Such restoration efforts have wide-reaching benefits to people and the environment, including carbon storage and increased biodiversity.
Effective, equitable natural resource management poses increasingly complex challenges for policymakers and local communities in the context of climate change, population growth and potentially conflicting agendas on biodiversity conservation, livelihoods and economic growth. Leicester research on socio-ecological, culturally appropriate approaches to environmental governance and sustainability has been integral to:
This case study shows how research on ecosystem service governance is directly supporting the Government's promotion of Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) schemes. These aim to pay for nature's services through the involvement of business and the wider public. Specifically, research has informed the development of a pilot UK Peatland Code to stimulate private investment in peatland restoration. The pilot Code, which was published for public feedback in June (and launched in September 2013 by the Environment Minister), sets out guidance and quality standards for sustainable business investment in peatlands. It has implications for chartered surveyors, planners and others advising clients on future land use and income generating opportunities. According to Defra's Deputy Director of Sustainable Land and Rural Evidence and Analysis, lessons from this research have "made a significant contribution" towards Defra's PES agenda, "provid[ing] us with valuable lessons for the development of PES schemes in the UK" (Testimonial 1).
The Centre for Econics and Ecosystem Management is the product of six years of international collaborative research and sector-based consultancy between Writtle College and Eberswalde University for Sustainable Development (Germany). Activities at the Centre include developing a core body of internationally recognised research in the fields of non-equilibrium thermodynamics, complex systems science and adaptive management, and using the research to work with conservation organisations around the World to resolve significant environmental problems. Our sponsors include GIZ, Germany and WWF Germany, and our operations extend from Central America to the Ukraine, Russia, South Eastern Europe, China and Korea.
This case study describes the impact of the research of the Centre for Earth and Ecosystem Responses to Environmental Change (CEEREC), MMU, on the protection and restoration of native ecosystems and upland semi-natural habitats that are affected by nitrogen pollution. CEEREC investigates the harm caused by nitrogen pollution to a range of semi-natural habitats. We also explore the impact of historic pollution in upland Britain and the potential for recovery through ecological restoration. Our research has informed evidence-based changes to UK, EU and US emission control policy and on the mitigation and restoration methods (e.g. `BeadaMoss™) of pollution affected landscapes.
The School of Environmental Sciences, through its Centre for Social and Economic Research on the Global Environment (CSERGE) has exerted a seminal influence upon decision-making regarding natural capital and the ecosystem services they supply. Major impacts have been upon UK Government Policy (including the Natural Environment White Paper); Government guidelines (regarding the valuation of ecosystem services and their incorporation within decisions); underpinning UK Official Reports (including the UK National Ecosystem Assessment); Government Committees (including the Defra Science Advisory Council and H.M. Treasury Natural Capital Committee); and the business sector (such as the privatised water companies). In addition, substantial TV, radio and newspaper exposure has generated impact through raising awareness of ecosystem service related issues.
Research undertaken at the University of Manchester (UoM) has described peatland erosion and its impacts on hydrology and carbon balance; demonstrating the value of large scale peatland restoration via the re-vegetation of bare peat and erosion gully blocking. The primary impact can be seen within the Peak District National Park, where findings have formed the scientific underpinning for extensive investment in landscape-scale peatland restoration (totalling > £13m) by restoration practitioners such as the Moors for the Future Partnership (MFFP), which is significantly transforming degraded but iconic peatland landscapes. The MFFP mode is viewed as a national exemplar, with UoM research continuing to impact on upland policy, land use and restoration planning by regional, national and international bodies (National Trust, Moors for the Future, Natural England, DEFRA and the International Union for Conservation of Nature).
New approaches to analysing and modelling water systems, developed at Cardiff, have driven national policy changes to improve the proportion of fully functioning water ecosystems in the UK. UK Government, Welsh Government and a range of NGOs have adopted these new approaches, which replace traditional descriptive methods with experimental, analytical and modeling techniques for understanding water ecosystems.
These approaches have been used to develop the water-related component of the National Ecosystem Assessment. This document has directly impacted on UK river management policy, forming the basis of two Defra White papers, `Natural Choice' and `Water for Life', underpinning Welsh Government's Natural Environment Framework and informing the work of a range of NGOs.
Research by Andy Marshall has led to conservation of biodiversity. The research has spawned a long-term conservation project that is saving a threatened forest from destruction and has led to improved awareness of forest value and sustainable behaviour by local communities. The work has also led to a centre for biodiversity/education research, two educational books, and species revisions on the international Red List. Work on Biodiversity Action Plans (BAPs) led to the development of the world's first BAP by a zoo, followed by workshops and a paper, that are being used for an advice pack to be circulated to over 100 British zoos. Marshall is a regional committee member for monitoring UK BAP targets. Marshall is a senior member of a national committee for encouraging field conservation by zoos, and through this led a report used in a parliamentary debate. Three awards have been received.
The ecosystem approach has been advocated as a way of moving consideration of biodiversity and the environment closer to the centre of decision-making. A conceptual `cascade model', developed by Haines-Young and Potschin, has successfully overcome the challenge of the ecosystem approach by showing how it can be used in practice. The cascade model forms the basis of the Common International Classification of Ecosystem Services (CICES), recently introduced by the European Environment Agency (EEA), and has changed how UK and European policy-makers define the relationship between nature and the economy.