Summary of the impact

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.

Summary of the impact

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.

Summary of the impact

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.

Summary of the impact

Our research on the hydro-ecology of restored wetlands has had impact through i) Changing the practices of conservation Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) in wetland habitat restoration and monitoring. This has been achieved by re-framing approaches to restoration as `open-ended' rather than `prescriptive'; and by producing a clear and accessible new guideline document on how to monitor open-ended, landscape-scale wetland restoration projects; ii) Building capacity for NGOs in biodiversity monitoring through running 44 workshops for volunteers on species identification; iii) Challenging conventional conservation wisdoms on approaches to habitat restoration through debate with stakeholder groups; iv) Increasing the influence of conservation NGOs and government agencies by providing them with a new toolkit for measuring the ecosystem services of restored wetlands.

Summary of the impact

This case study concerns the development, adoption and dissemination of innovative `community-owned' approaches to the sustainable management of social-ecological systems (SES) within the Guiana Shield region of South America. Spanning the countries of Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana and areas of Brazil, Venezuela and Colombia, this region is of recognized global significance for carbon storage, fresh water resources and biodiversity. Its indigenous, Amerindian communities have a potentially crucial role to play in sustainable conservation policy and practice. However, local economic and cultural changes, extractive industries, and global dynamics such as climate change are bringing profound challenges to these local communities and their SES. Research at Royal Holloway has responded to these challenges by involving indigenous peoples in both biodiversity science and sustainability policy. The work allows indigenous communities to identify, through participatory research methods, the most effective practices they have for surviving and thriving sustainably.

The impacts of the research are of four main types:

• The use of research data and approaches in shaping local, national and transnational policy initiatives;
• The production of `community-owned' solutions to the socio-ecological challenges faced by indigenous communities;
• Intensive `capacity building' via training of local researchers, the promotion of local `champions' of successful best practices, and the support of autonomous action research by communities;
• Enhancing public understanding of conservation in the region, especially via primary education.

Summary of the impact

Appropriate land policy is vital to ensure sustainable food supplies, economic development and environmental protection. Research by the Centre for Rural Policy Research (CRPR) has developed the policy and management implications of the ecosystems services approach to valuing and protecting the environment, which stresses integrated and equitable management of land, water and living resources. The research has contributed to major shifts in policy and practice by national government bodies and changes in the attitudes and behaviour of farming communities. The main impacts have been:

• Contributing to the Department for the Environment and Rural Affairs' (Defra) development of national guidelines embedding the ecosystems services approach in policy and helping make the case for the first ever UK National Ecosystems Assessment;
• Informing the Commission for Rural Communities' major review of rural uplands policy and changing policy through the review to improve environmental stewardship in upland farming;
• Improving Defra and Natural England's agri-environmental policies to better communicate the scientific rationale of policies to farmers through training and advice to bring about more pro-environmental attitudes and farming practices.

Summary of the impact

Science has guided national dryland policy in Africa through approaches that have omitted local knowledge, and has informed international policy through implementation of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), previously developed by a Roster of Experts. Our national and district-level research in Botswana has identified routes to increase community involvement in degradation monitoring, and our strategies have been rolled out nationally via agricultural extension workers, allowing knowledge to inform farming practices and land policy. Our analysis of the wider international context has led us to propose new science-to-policy pathways that have allowed the UNCCD to draw more effectively upon both local and scientific evidence.

Summary of the impact

The project combined stakeholder knowledge with natural science to identify future scenarios and adaptation options for uplands. Research into upland ecosystem services identified win-win scenarios (e.g. around carbon management) and important trade-offs (e.g. effects on biodiversity). These were embedded within government policy reports leading to additional work in government departments seeking to overcome policy barriers in these areas in order to implement the recommendations from the research. Overcoming these policy barriers has influenced government's decision to work in partnership to launch a new peatland carbon code, focussing on upland peatlands, creating corporate social responsibility (CSR) options for companies via peatland protection and restoration.

Summary of the impact

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.

Summary of the impact

Research on the relationship between the livelihood strategies of artisanal miners and the regulation of resource extraction has had impact in three main areas:

• Informing international negotiations for the 2013 Minamata Convention on Mercury, and in particular increasing the attention paid to artisanal miners.
• Assisting makers of national policy in implementing workable resource regulations strategies in Africa and Asia, which take into account the livelihood needs of artisanal miners, as part of attempts to implement the Minamata Convention.
• Assisting local organisations in Zimbabwe, in increasing their capacity to campaign for forms of national regulation that take the livelihood needs of artisanal miners into account.