News

Climate warming has long been known to cause glaciers to melt and ‘retreat’ up the mountain to higher altitudes, leaving land that had been under ice for many millenia suddenly exposed to the air. The fate of this land varies – in many cases natural vegetation moves in, but in others local people cultivate the exposed land. In the Himalaya, the rat…

An excellent series of talks and a post-COP15 panel discussion is lined up for this term. See the poster for details.All talks are in the DAB Main Seminar Room at 4 pm on Wednesdays, followed by drinks in the Common Room. NOTE that TODAY'S SEMINAR is on a MONDAY.The poster gives you the details so far. Save the dates. More details will be available…

Zoology's Dr Andrew Bladon has worked with RSPB conservation scientists to explore how much bird-friendly agri-environment management is needed to stabilise or reverse farmland bird declines. Agricultural intensification is a major driver of global biodiversity decline. In Europe, farmers are financially incentivised to create wildlife friendly hab…

A new conservation guide launched to protect European seabirds at risk from climate change, by the CRI's Silviu Petrovan, Bill Sutherland and Nigel Taylor, in collaboration with the ZSL (The Zoological Society of London). This is a first-of-its-kind conservation guide to protecting the 47 species that breed along the Atlantic coastline; offering ho…

Study of farmer preferences shows that turning whole areas of farmland into habitats comes with half the price tag of integrating nature into productive farmland, if biodiversity and carbon targets are to be met. Incentivising farmers to restore some land as habitats for nature could deliver UK climate and biodiversity targets at half the taxpayer …

Brett Wilson's love of wild tulips has taken him to some of the most spectacular places in Central Asia, where he discovered a new species in Toktogul, Kyrgyzstan. His work has helped to uncover the plight of 53 tulips which have been added to the 'Red List' of threatened species.The tulip hunter of Toktogul (cam.ac.uk)

We are delighted to share our newly released open access book: Transforming Conservation: A practical Guide to Evidence and Decision Making, Edited by William SutherlandDownload for free: https://www.openbookpublishers.com/books/10.11647/obp.0321Find out more here:Film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Js9liVXdh20Blog: https://conservationevidencebl…

The UN Convention on Biological Diversity secretariat and the University of Cambridge signed a Memorandum of Understanding on day two of COP15, which recognises that the CCI Masters in Conservation Leadership course hosted by the Department of Geography plays a crucial role in conservation capacity building.COP15: UN and Cambridge sign agreement to…

The University of Cambridge has signed a nature positive pledge as a founding member of the global Nature Positive Universities network formed in conjunction with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). The CRI's Prof. Chris Sandbrook, Director of the Masters in Conservation Leadership, has played a key role in this exciting development.Ca…

Ecologists at the Conservation Research Institute have developed a new method of mapping early successional species in tropical forests using Unoccupied Ariel Vehicles (UAVs) to generate reference crown images with attached GPS, a system that will enable practitioners to construct reference data sets for forest restoration projects more efficiently…

CCI Conservation Seminar Series - check out our updated programme for Autumn 2022/Spring 2023.

A new grant from the EU’s ‘Starting Grants’ scheme awarded to Adam Pelligrini, will fund studies to improve carbon credit schemes in dryland areas by boosting our grasp of the effects of periodic fire events on carbon capture and storage.The project is one of over 400 to have been awarded funding under the European Research Council (ERC) Starting G…

New evidence suggests that REDD+ projects in the tropics have helped reduce deforestation, particularly in regions of rapid land use changeTropical deforestation and degradation are significant contributors to global greenhouse gas emissions. Projects aimed at Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) in exchange for carb…

Plant hunters have discovered a new and unusual species of tulip during an expedition to Kyrgyzstan.DNA testing at a Cambridge University laboratory has established it was "something completely different". Tulipa toktogulica was found by scientists from the university's botanic garden, Fauna and Flora International (FFI) and local teams. Cambridge …

Jair Bolsonaro has been toppled from government in Brazil, which has led to the rejoicing of environmentalists and scientists in South America and beyond. In the Conversation, the UCCRI's Prof. Rachael Garrett explores what Lula's election means for deforestation in Brazil.https://theconversation.com/zero-deforestation-in-the-amazon-is-now-possible…