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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…

Hamid Rahimi, Chris Evans and Laurie Friday, members of the Centre for Landscape Regeneration (CLR), which is based in the Conservation Research Institute, are some of the co-authors of Lines in the Landscape, a paper in Nature Communications Earth and Environment, uncovering the often-overlooked role of ditches and water channels in our landscapes…

C-EENRG Fellow and member of the CRI-based Centre for Landscape Regeneration, Professor Shailaja Fennell has been awarded a Mastercard Grant for the 2025-2026 year.The Grant will allow Professor Fennell to work alongside Professor Scott Drimie of Stellenbosch University on conducting a workshop on Ecologies in Place for African professionals across…

Evaluating the impact of conservation interventions is critical to understanding whether interventions are working. A range of approaches are available to evaluate conservation impact, with suitability depending on context.Quantitative approaches are typically used due to perceptions around greater rigour and broader acceptance, but qualitative app…

Critically Endangered (CR) species are those closest to extinction in the wild. This includes iconic species such as the kākāpō (Strigops habroptilus) and the Santa Catarina's guinea pig (Cavia intermedia). We reviewed the status of the 10,443 CR species, including which species they are, where they are found, what threatens them, and the actions b…