I recently talked to Professor Rosie Hails, the head of the Programme Coordination Team (PCT) for the Valuing Nature Programme (VNP), about the importance of considering nature's cultural, social and economic services. Rosie also discusses the role of the VNP, and explains how the PCT works to bring research communities together.
To learn more, please watch the video below or view it on the Valuing Nature YouTube channel.
An interesting paper by Sandifer et al (2015) explores the opportunities to enhance health and biodiversity conservation:-
Exploring connections among nature, biodiversity, ecosystem services, and human health and well-being: Opportunities to enhance health and biodiversity conservation doi:10.1016/j.ecoser.2014.12.007
It brought together people from business, academia, the public sector and civil society to share ideas and experiences relating to non-traditional forms of capital and their implications for businesses. There was a mix of talks, case studies and round-table discussions cutting across different types of capital and where they interact.
Today colleagues and I published a paper that brings together years of thinking and discussion about how to provide environmental managers access to the best available scientific evidence (Dicks et al. 2014). The mainstay of our approach is a ‘4S’ hierarchy.
This will be my last post to the Valuing Nature Network site in my role as VNN communications manager, as I prepare to say goodbye to the Valuing Nature Network, and take up my new role as the Communications and Impact Manager for the ESRC-funded Nexus Network.
It's been great working with you over the past couple of years and I have learnt a huge amount about the research, policy and business interests in valuing nature.
The newly reformed European Common Agricultural Policy includes compulsory greening measures, linked to the direct farm subsidies rather than being voluntary.
This should have been a good change, further protecting farmed ecosystems across Europe and the important services they provide. Our analysis, published today in Science, explains why it is not.
The National Pollinators Strategy for England came out yesterday for consultation. In it, the Government outlines what it will do to help pollinators over the next 10 years.
Essentially it boils down to three things that are new:
• Provide targeted Government guidance on how to help pollinators
• Fund research to start filling in some glaring knowledge gaps
• Implement a new pollinator monitoring scheme from 2016.
Last Friday I went to the True-Cost Accounting in Food and Farming conference in London, organised by the Sustainable Food Trust.