News

Prof. Laura Diaz Anadon, Dr Edoardo Borgomeo, Dr Kennedy Mbeva join historic IPCC Authors meeting in ParisThree Cambridge researchers have joined more than six hundred experts from around the world in Paris in the first week of December to commence work on the first draft of a key report from the United Nations body for assessing the science relate…

TESSERA: An open-source satellite remote-sensing foundation model for researchersSatellite remote sensing enables a wide range of downstream applications, including habitat mapping, carbon accounting, and strategies for conservation and sustainable land use. However, satellite time series are voluminous and often corrupted, making them challenging …

Global bird study reveals declining ecosystem resilienceA new study has found land-use change is undermining ecosystem stability by reducing the functional diversity of bird communities.  'A variety of bird species play key roles in supporting the ecosystems that we rely on, yet we are damaging habitat quality and thus the potential for species to …

Tropical field course 2025: a unique insight into rainforest ecology and conservationLast month 28 students and staff from the Departments of Plant Sciences and Zoology along with 6 Malaysian students from local universities, travelled to the Danum Valley Field Centre in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo for this year’s tropical field course.The course is a …

AI and conservation resolution adopted at the IUCN World Conservation CongressAt the recent IUCN World Conservation Congress (WCC), evidence of the AI revolution was everywhere, from gleaming tech on display in the exhibition space to the content of hundreds of speeches and presentations. This makes sense, because the implications of AI for conserv…

To save nature, AI needs our helpHave you ever persisted in following your SatNav even when you knew you were going in the wrong direction? If so, you’ll know that placing all your trust in a machine powered by AI, without also engaging your own intelligence, does not always get you where you want to go.This is the message that a group of conservat…

Curiosity and co-incidence led Professor Chris Sandbrook to a life-long passion for conservation, education and understanding the role that people play in nature’s future.The new Director of the Cambridge Conservation Research Institute (CRI) has enjoyed a rich career that includes mountain gorillas in Uganda and seeing tigers in northern India, bu…

Insect Ecology Group expands research at new butterfly banks in TrumpingtonThanks to the construction of butterfly banks, Trumpington Meadows Nature Reserve in Cambridge is now a location for cutting-edge research into mitigating the effects of climate change on insects.The research, part of the Banking on Butterflies project, is a collaboration be…

The Guardian reports on a study led by Dr Silviu Petrovan (Department of Zoology / CRI) that used data from ‘toad patrol’ volunteers to reveal that UK toad populations have fallen drastically in the last 40 years. The researchers think road traffic is a major cause for the decline. “Vast numbers of toads are being lost every year,” said Petrovan. B…

The following text has been taken by an article on the UKRI website: https://www.ukri.org/news/research-points-to-27-action-areas-to-transform-uk-food-system/.An article by the CRI's Lynn Dicks and co-authors is included in the ‘Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B’ special edition': Key action areas for transforming the UK food system…

Average tree size across the Amazon has increased by 3.2% every decade consistent with a response to rising carbon dioxide levels, a new study suggests. The study, co-led by Dr Adriane Esquivel-Muelbert, incoming Associate Professor of Ecology at the Department of Plant Sciences, University of Cambridge, and the Conservation Research Institute, fou…

Professor Laura Diaz Anadon, chaired Professor of Climate Change Policy, Director of CEENRG, and on the Committee of  Management Board of the CRI, was selected to serve as Lead Author of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 7th Assessment Report. She will work as Lead Author in Working Group III on Mitigation of Climate Change in Ch…

A major paper led by Iris Berger, a PhD student in our Agroecology Group, and member of the Conservation Research Instituite, co-authored by group leader Prof Lynn Dicks, is published in Nature Ecology and Evolution today.The paper, entitled, "India's agroecology programme, 'Zero Budget Natural Farming'”, analyses one of the world’s biggest agroeco…

Last week, Daniel Zeichner, Minister of State for Food Security and Rural Affairs and MP for Cambridge, visited the University of Cambridge Sainsbury Lab for a series of research demonstrations which included work from the Department of Zoology. Mr Zeichner's portfolio includes Environmental Land Management (ELMS), food security, agri-science and f…

Britain’s swifts, whose populations have fallen by 68% between 1995 and 2003, are at the centre of a growing debate over how new developments can serve both people and wildlife. In a new paper published in npj Urban Sustainability, the authors studied the debate regarding mandating swift bricks in all new residential buildings through the lens of m…