Topic description and stories

Life on Earth is at risk from an unprecedented rate of environmental change that threatens the natural resources on which we depend.

Professor Oliver Rackham leads a visit to Hayley Wood, August 2012

Hearts of oak

31 Aug 2012

Throughout his distinguished career as an ecologist Professor Oliver Rackham has been studying the delicate balance of habitats and species in Hayley...

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Detail from the cloud forest of Loma Alta in Ecuador, one of the conservation success stories highlighted in the book Wild Hope.

Spreading the good word from the wild

08 Aug 2012

A new book by a Cambridge professor offers an alternative to the narratives of nature’s annihilation, by shining a light on conservation success...

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A path on the South Downs Way in Sussex

Travelling slowly

20 Jun 2012

Cambridge academic Dr Robert Macfarlane’s new book – The Old Ways – is a remarkable excursion into the many-layered landscape of life and literature...

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Seahorse

Seahorses and the "onion world"

24 May 2012

Dr Amanda Vincent – one of the world’s leading experts on seahorses and their relatives – is spending a year at Cambridge’s Department of Geography...

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rainforest canopy

Assessing protected area effectiveness

30 Mar 2012

A new study published in Conservation Letters aims to measure whether parks and reserves in the tropics succeed in protecting forests.

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Dr Ed Turner covered in sweat bees – a typical eusocial insect.

Evolution Revolution

24 Mar 2012

Developments in evolutionary biology have a significant impact on the way we look at the world and ourselves in it, according to a conservation...

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Elephants at Kruger National Park, South Africa

Demise of large animals caused by both man and climate change

05 Mar 2012

Research provides new insights about what caused the extinction of many of the world’s big animals over the last 100,000 years.

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Crummock Water, Cumbria

Landscape, literature, life

29 Feb 2012

Over the past few years, the genre of ‘nature writing’ has seen a new sense of urgency, fostered by a growing awareness of a natural world under...

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From left: Bill Adams, Bruno Monteferri, Chris Sandbrook

Games for nature

24 Feb 2012

Can digital games and virtual worlds help us save nature? Conservation scientists Bruno Monteferri, Chris Sandbrook and Bill Adams explore whether...

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Clusters

Conservation clusters: making the case

21 Feb 2012

A new study reveals how the gathering together of conservation organisations in one location – a ‘conservation cluster’ – can work best to reap...

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Droplet

The crystal ball of conservation

15 Feb 2012

An innovative horizon-scanning exercise, which has just delivered its latest report, highlights emerging topics of relevance to the world’s natural...

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Ancient bat bones

A lost world? How zooarchaeology can inform biodiversity conservation

10 Feb 2012

A new study of tropical forests will provide a 50,000-year perspective on how animal biodiversity has changed, explored through an archaeological...

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