Past recorded events, talks and videos associated with the CRI
What's The Best Way of Farming Nature?
Food production has a greater impact on biodiversity and land use than any other human activity. Intensive high-yield farming systems generally get a bad press; one that focusses on greater greenhouse gas emissions, antimicrobial resistance, pandemic risk and poorer animal welfare. But is intensive farming really so bad? In this talk, Harriet Bartlett will look at the impacts of different farming systems, with a focus on biodiversity, and how we can figure out the best ways to farm for the environment, people and our livestock.
The Conservation Research Institute Conference: Playlist
In 2020 the annual Conservation Research Institute Conference took place online and was recorded for those unable to attend. Watch the showcase of our interdisciplinary work in relation to conservation, Flash Talks from our Early Career Researchers, and what some of former PhD students were up to.
Can Healthy Ecosystems Prevent Future Pandemics?
In collaboration with Global Food Security, Cambridge Infectious Diseases and Public Health at Cambridge, The University of Cambridge Conservation Research Institute hosted an inter-disciplinary online event that posed the question, 'Can healthy ecosystems prevent future pandemics?' With over 150 attendees, this online event marked the beginning of a much wider discussion on how the degradation of our natural environment and changing behaviours have increased the risk of disease “spillover” from animals to humans.
Human interactions with wild and farmed animals must change dramatically to reduce risk of another deadly pandemic
Dr Silviu Petrovan led a team of international wildlife and veterinary experts on a new study identifying seven routes by which pandemics could occur and 161 options for reducing the risk. It concludes that widespread changes to the way we interact with animals are needed; solutions that only address one issue – such as the trade in wild animals – are not enough. Prof. Bill Sutherland discusses this work in a lecture available here.
Giving To Cambridge
Former director of the CRI, Professor Bhaskar Vira, was involved in a Giving To Cambridge campaign event in London.
Find out more about the impact through engagement programme.
Minecraft tree “probably” the tallest tree in the Tropics
A tree the height of 20 London double-decker buses was discovered in Malaysia by conservation scientists monitoring the impact of human activity on the biodiversity of a pristine rainforest.
Project led by Professor David Coomes, Head of Forest Ecology and Conservation Group
Watch a video of Professor Laura Diaz Anadon speaking before an event organised by the Graduate Institute's Centre for International Environmental Studies.
Eureka Moments: Professor Andrew Balmford
In this video Andrew Balmford discusses his moment of discovery, which he shared with Professor Rhys Green, was the realization that the best way to conserve wild nature would almost certainly be to keep large areas of high-yielding agriculture completely separate from large areas of land completely committed to biodiversity conservation. This is known as land-sparing, in contrast to the alternative strategy of doing agriculture and conservation in more or less the same spatial area - land-sharing.
Endangered Landscapes Programme
In this 3-minute video, Professor Bill Adams from the Department of Geography talks about the importance, challenges and good practice in landscape restoration.
The Procurement Model
Professor Ian Hodge speaks at Scotland’s Biennial Land Use and Environment Conference XII REWARDING THE DELIVERY OF PUBLIC GOODS: HOW TO ACHIEVE THIS IN PRACTICE? 28-29 November 2018, Our Dynamic Earth, Edinburgh
From the Mayans to the Moors
A series of eight films released by the University of Cambridge Conservation Research Institute set out to highlight these remarkable connections, demonstrating the breadth of research interests at the University that have the potential to intersect with 21st-century issues in biodiversity conservation.
The Naked Scientists Podcast: Conservation: why care?
The Naked Scientists is a weekly science show, featuring science news stories, scientific breakthroughs and interviews with leading scientists...
In this episode Dr Bhaskar Vira is featured as he asks; ‘Would you care about conserving an animal if it threatened your job, your food supply or even your life?’
The feature on conservation including a message from Sir David Attenborough is from 26.44: