The British Ecological Society Undergraduate Fellowship Scheme offers the opportunity for current or recent undergraduates to find out more about the careers available in the area of ecology.

Under the year-long scheme, Fellows will have the opportunity to attend the BES annual meeting to learn more about the society and possible careers in ecology and research. Throughout the year, participants will be encouraged to attend a variety of events throughout the UK, providing the chance for networking and to hear about opportunities in ecology. Graduate members and staff of the BES will also provide a mentoring service for Fellows through their progression from education and training to the start of an ecology career.

More information on the scheme, and details on how to apply are available here. Closing date for applications is 31st March 2012.

Applications are now being accepted for the BES Parliamentary Shadowing Scheme. The scheme offers a fantastic opportunity for early-career ecologists to gain an insight into how ecology and the environment are addressed in policy making by spending two days shadowing a senior policy-maker. In the past, hosts have included Parliamentary-Secretaries of State at Defra, Government Ministers in Wales, Policy Advisors in Scotland and MEPs in Brussels, and previous shadowers have found their placements to be a positive, useful and interesting experience.

The scheme is open to members of the BES in the early stages of their research career. You must have finished your PhD and completed this no more than 12 years ago.

Full details on the scheme, including how to apply are available here. The closing date for applications is Wednesday 29th February.

Do you know someone who’s campaigned tirelessly to protect a patch of green space?

Have you got a favourite teacher who’s inspired you to do something for nature?

Is there a famous person you admire who’s challenging the system?

If so, they could be a candidate for an Octavia Hill award, organised by the National Trust in partnership with Countryfile Magazine. The deadline for nominations is 31 January 2012.

Applications can now be made to attend the ‘Workshop for Economists and Ecologists’ run by the Natural Capital Initiative. The workshop is aimed at encouraging interdisciplinary cooperation and knowledge exchange between economists and ecologists, with the goal of informing public policy. Sustainable agriculture will be used as the case study theme.

The workshop will take place on Tuesday 8th May 2012 at Charles Darwin House, London.

The day will begin with presentations outlining current ecological and economic perspectives on sustainable agriculture after which there will be a panel discussion, followed by group sessions to identify possible opportunities for interdisciplinary work.

If you would like to participate, please register by sending a summary of up to 150 words of how you would benefit from attending the event, as well as your position in any organisation you are affiliated with, and send to secretariat@naturalcapitalinitiative.org.uk by the 31st January 2012.

A healthy natural environment is the foundation of a sustainable future with prospering communities. In the UK and elsewhere, pioneering projects are exploring new ways of managing land and sea environments and the benefits people derive from them. In particular, they are reflecting an ‘ecosystems approach’: a holistic and inclusive approach to promoting the sustainable use of natural resources and taking better account of the values people hold for the environment. A new network has been sponsored by Defra with the aim of sharing experience from projects taking an ecosystems approach. Entitled the Ecosystems Knowledge Network, it will stimulate knowledge exchange and practical learning across the country. It will assist organisations and groups to understand how an ecosystems approach can help build sustainable communities. The Natural Capital Initiative, one of the Society of Biology’s Special Interest Groups, is developing the network in an independent partnership involving the NERC Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, Fabis Consulting, the University of Exeter (Centre for Rural Policy Research) and Countryscape.

The Ecosystems Knowledge Network is free to join and open to anyone with an interest in an ecosystems approach.

(Text from the Society of Biology website)

A staggering 1060 new species have been discovered over the past ten years on the pacific island of New Guinea according to a new report by WWF. Around 260 new species of vertebrate, 580 species of invertebrates and 220 new species of plants were discovered during the course of the study which was carried out between 1998 and 2008. The report titled ‘Final Frontier: Newly discovered species of New Guinea (1998 – 2008)’ forms part of WWFs 50th anniversary celebrations drawing attention to the loss of biodiversity.

Approximately two species were discovered per week throughout the study. Many new species of mammal were discovered including a new species of dolphin, a group in which new discoveries are very rare. Many new species of birds, amphibians and insects were also discovered. The study serves as a reminder of the undiscovered diversity of earth. Dr Mark Wright, conservation science adviser at WWF, said “The world is full of fantastic and fantastical creatures, of quirky and improbable lifestyles. The more we look, the more we find. But this exuberance of nature is under threat. Despite the best efforts of groups like WWF, it is clear that we will not save all we would like to.”

The island of New Guinea has an area of only 0.5% of the earth’s landmass but it has been estimated that it contains around 6 to 8% of global species, and remains relatively understudied despite this fact. The country also has extraordinarily high levels of endemic species. However the forest ecosystems of New Guinea are under threat from deforestation cause by rapid development and conversion of land to agriculture, particularly for the production of palm oil. 99 of New Guinea’s vertebrate species are on the IUCN red list of threatened species. It has been predicted that forest cover could be reduced to just 50% of its original area by over the next 10 years. Mangroves and coral reefs are also at risk from development in costal regions.

It is hoped that Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation and certification of sustainable palm oil through the Roundtable on Sustainable palm oil could provide a solution to some of the problems both people and nature are facing in the country.

Yesterday the BES policy team attended the IEEM summer conference on biodiversity and the Big Society. The conference was centred around four main themes;
- What will localism mean for the environment and biodiversity?
- How will measures to protect the environment be funded?
- How can we reconnect people with the environment and encourage volunteering?
- What will our landscape look like in the future?

Richard Benyon, Minister for Natural Environment and Fisheries, opened the conference speaking about the recent Natural Environment White Paper, the Government’s vision for the future of our landscapes, and how localism fits in with this vision. Whilst localism may be able to help deliver some of the visions of the recent White Paper it is clear that many questions remain, and that there are funding and communication barriers which need to be overcome. These barriers were discussed in detail by Mike Oxford and Adam Wallace who identified the key challenges facing ecologists.

Past experience has shown that financial support and good infrastructure is vital for the Big Society approach to work. However government departments, local authorities and communities are increasingly being asked to do more with less, and dramatic cuts to the budgets of environmental projects in government have instigated debate around how environmental projects might be funded now, and in the future.

Nick Perks from the Environmental Funders Network reviewed the relative role of government funding and philanthropy in sponsoring environmental projects, suggesting that it is unrealistic to assume philanthropic funding can fill the gaps left by the cuts, as government funding is so important for environmental projects. Polluter pays schemes are one suggestion for attracting more money towards environmental projects, however Nick indicated that this is likely to be unpopular with business and developers and therefore politically unfeasible.

In local authorities cuts to the budget of biodiversity teams have been more severe than in other areas. Ensuring that Ecology is better recognised as a profession was the main theme of Penny Anderson’s (IEEM President) talk, in order to protect the role of professional ecologists within local authorities and to ensure the importance of preserving the natural environment is recognised.

Reconnecting local people with nature is one of the key messages of the recent Natural Environment White Paper, and one area in which there already appears to be a great deal of success. Matt Davies from Greenspace Information for Greater London gave an interesting talk about engaging local people in biodiversity data recording through Bioblitz initiatives, an intensive session of biodiversity data recording over a 24 hour period designed to reconnect people with nature and encourage dialogue between local people and experts. The Alexandra Palace Bioblitz attracted over 8000 volunteers and was featured on the BBC programme Springwatch demonstrating the level of public enthusiasm that exists.

Catherine Chatters from Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust also reported a great deal of success in engaging volunteers from a variety of backgrounds including local schools and businesses in the New Forest non native plants project. Volunteers were able to make a significant contribution to the health of their local rivers and marshes through coordinated action to efficiently remove and prevent the spread of a range of invasive species including Giant Hogweed and Himalayan Balsam. However she stressed the importance of adequate funding for the success of the project, emphasising that professional leadership is vital for supporting and enthusing volunteers in their work and to gain cooperation from local landowners and retailers which stock the invasive plants.

Local Authorities are also taking greater interests in the needs of local people and the Beam Parklands case study presented by Paul Johnson, Director of Environmental Consulting at Arup, showed that through effective consultation with local communities a landscape can be created that delivers multiple benefits including biodiversity conservation and enhancement, educational opportunities for young people, and recreational space. Local people were involved in every stage of the project which transformed neglected wetlands into a valuable community space, teeming with wildlife.

The final talk of the day by the Landscape Architect Merrick Denton-Thompson OBE presented a vision of the future land use, extrapolating current trends to 2050, and examining challenges and opportunities for the environment. In the controversial talk, which initiated debate in the audience Merrick suggested that food shortages will play the key role in shaping landscapes of the future, and as the wealth of other countries increases the UK will have to become self sufficient. He also indicated that all landscapes will have to deliver multiple benefits (food production, carbon sequestration, energy, biodiversity conservation), and there would be strict penalties for non-compliance.

Overall the conference was an interesting and useful experience, with lively debate over localism, the funding challenge and communication.

This week Defra released the highly anticipated Natural Environment White Paper titled ‘The Natural Choice: Securing the Value of Nature’, outlining Government’s vision for the future of landscapes and ecosystem services. The paper emphasises that although we know the environment provides many irreplaceable and valuable services we have been unsustainably exploiting natural capital for many years, leading to biodiversity loss and degradation. Plans for action to halt and reverse the decline in biodiversity and ecosystem services are described.

In a Defra press release following the launch of the White Paper Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman said “The true value of nature should be built in to the decisions we make – as individuals, organisations, businesses and governments – so that we become the first generation to leave the environment in a better condition than we found it.”

One of the key plans is to create 12 new Nature Improvement Areas (NIAs), designed to fulfil many of the goals of Lawton’s ‘Ecological Restoration Zones’, and help wildlife adapt to climate change. A competition will be set up to determine the site of the 12 initial Nature Improvement Areas, and Local Nature Partnerships (LNPs) will be invited to enter their area. So far £7.5 million has been pledged to fund these Nature Improvement Areas. However the Lawton Review ‘Making Space For Nature’ estimated the cost of restoring damage already done to the natural environment at around £0.6 to £1.1 billion.

The Government also plan to use the imminent reforms of the planning system to achieve environmental objectives, and improve ecological networks. Planners will be encouraged to put the natural environment at the heart of all decision making. Reforms to the planning system will include introducing voluntary use of biodiversity offsets in some areas, with a view to broadening these pilot schemes over time.

Another key element of the paper is plans to reconnect local people, particularly children, with nature, by creating a new Local Green Area designation to protect green spaces of particular importance to communities, and removing barriers preventing teaching outdoors. Communities will be supported to volunteer to protect their local wildlife areas.

A new independent committee (The Natural Capital Committee) will be established to advise the Government on the state of natural capital in the UK. Following the release of the UK National Ecosystem Assessment natural capital will be included in the UK Environmental Accounts.

Businesses will be expected to take greater action to protect the environment, and the Government have proposed to investigate potential ways to expand markets in which ecosystem service providers are paid by the users of the service.

The government have also pledged to influence policy in the EU and internationally by showing leadership and ensuring that there are ambitious environmental commitments included in the reformed Common Agricultural Policy and Common Fisheries Policy. £25 million will be donated to the Darwin initiatives fund to help ecosystem and development projects, reducing poverty worldwide. Initiatives to reduce climate change will also continue to be supported through £2.9 billion of funds which will distributed to projects such as Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation.

In general the White Paper received a positive response from conservation organisations. The director of conservation at the RSPB Martin Harper said “Nature Improvement Areas are about looking at conservation on a joined up, landscape scale, instead of a series of patchwork measures dotted across our landscape. It’s fantastic to see the Government promoting this idea.” At the Wildlife Trusts Paul Wilkinson, Head of Living Landscapes said “How this White Paper is implemented and adopted by all Government departments will be critical. There is a vital need to ensure it influences the current policy reforms around planning, development and growth.” All emphasised that they would be willing to work with the government to ensure that the ambitious plans are carried out.

‘Landscapes of the Future’ the new Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology POSTnote written by the current BES POST fellow Eleanor Kean was launched today. ‘Landscapes of the Future’ focuses on the benefits that we derive from our landscapes, and the increasing pressures facing continued delivery of these benefits.

It has been widely established, following the release of the National Ecosystem Assessment, that we gain a variety of benefits and services from the environment including food, clean water, recreation and protection from natural disaster. However these benefits are threatened by the way in which we use land, often exploiting landscapes for a single purpose, without considering the wider detrimental effects.

Demographic change is increasing the pressure we place on land to provide the ecosystem services on which we rely. This coupled with environmental and climate change, societal attitudes and the policy environment will change the way in which we use land over the coming years. It is important to manage the challenges facing the natural environment through existing policies, and also through innovation and novel techniques.

Eleanor identifies opportunities for future landscape planning to adapt to these pressures, and provide multifunctional landscapes that ease competition between different land uses. Many opportunities have arisen as a result of proposed reforms of the planning system, abolition of regional spatial strategies, and introduction of a new National Planning Policy Framework. The establishment of Ecological Restoration Zones as recommended by the Lawton review ‘Making Space for Nature’ are also likely to play a key part in securing ecosystem services for future generations.

Localism may be expected to affect the way landscapes are managed, and the POSTnote emphasises the importance of allowing communities to access good information about the environment, facilitating local people to make good decisions. Green Infrastructure also has great potential to deliver environmental, social and economic benefits. An integrated approach to land use planning is another key message of the POSTnote which recommends that Government departments work together to achieve desirable environmental, social and economic outcomes.

The UK National Ecosystem Assessment has been released today, and is the first independent, peer reviewed, in detail assessment of the state and value of the UK’s natural environment and ecosystem services. Both scientists and economists were involved in the assessment, which was funded by the governments of England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales, and by the Natural Environment Research Council and the Economic and Social Science Research council.

The UK National Ecosystem Assessment strengthens the argument for protecting nature, and demonstrates that the costs of protecting the environment are shadowed by the cost of inaction. One of the key messages of the report was that we have focussed far too heavily on the market value of natural resources we can sell (e.g. timber and food), and not properly considered natural capital during decision making.

During the 20th Century population increases and initiatives to produce more food and timber led to serious damage and degradation of ecosystems and related services. Agricultural land, urban areas and woodlands have decline at the expense of other habitats such as semi-natural grasslands. Across all habitats the changes in land use and environmental pressures have led to declines in the number of species and quality of ecosystem services. 50% of fish stocks are being harvested unsustainably, and the UK has the lowest percentage forest cover of anywhere in Europe, with over two thirds being non-native plantation.

The report suggests that if the UK’s ecosystems were properly protected and enhanced then they could add an extra £30 billion to the UK economy. Neglect and loss of ecosystem services may cost as much as £20 billion to the economy per year.

The assessment looked at eight different types of ecosystems (Mountains, Moorlands and Heaths, Semi-natural Grasslands, Enclosed Farmland, Woodlands, Freshwaters – Openwaters, Wetlands and Floodplains, Urban, Coastal Margins, and Marine), the services that they provide, how the levels of service provisioning have changed over the past sixty years, and the main drivers of environmental change. The report considered both the monetary and non-monetary value of our natural environment, and the economic value of the observed changes in the way that ecosystems function and provide services, demonstrating that individuals, society and the economy can benefit financially from protecting ecosystems. Finally the report focuses on the potential effects of decisions that are made now, by examining the ecosystem effects of several different scenarios.

The synthesis report of the National Ecosystem Assessment outlines six key findings:

1. Nature is consistently undervalued in a wide range of decision making processes, even though we are fully aware that it is highly important.
2. Ecosystems have changed over the past 60 years, as have the services that they provide, and the ways in which people benefit from them. Population growth, technology, and globalisation have had major effects on the way in which we behave and consume ecosystem services.
3. Some ecosystem services are in long term decline, although other services are being provided well, or improving. Approximately 30% of services are currently declining, with some services already in a degraded state
4. The UK’s population is growing, as are our demands on the natural environment. This, with the added pressure of climate change, will accelerate the rate at which we impact the environment both in the UK and worldwide. Increasing the production of food whilst safeguarding ecosystem services will be the main challenge in this area.
5. Actions taken now will impact the future of the UK’s ecosystems, ecosystems services and human wellbeing. It is important that we make the right decisions now, using the National Ecosystem Assessment to inform decision making, which would allow us to pursue a better future where the benefits of ecosystem services are better realised and more evenly distributed.
6. Regulations, technology, finance, education and changes in individual and societal behaviour are all needed to ensure that we move towards sustainable development. We also will also need a more integrated, collaborative approach to managing ecosystems, between different government departments, business local authorities, and civil society.

In response to the release of the National Ecosystem Assessment Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman said “The UK National Ecosystem Assessment is a vital step forward in our ability to understand the true value of nature and how to sustain the benefits it gives us. I want our children to be the first generation to leave the natural environment in a better state than it was left to them. The findings of this assessment have played a big part in shaping our forthcoming Natural Environment White Paper that will help us revitalise our towns and countryside.”

The report presents a real opportunity to start changing the way we think about the natural environment, and will be vital in shaping many areas of policy in the coming months. An effective strategy to ensure preservation of the UK’s ecosystems needs to be developed. Bob Watson, Chief Scientist at Defra Chief and co-chair of the UK NEA, said “Until now there has been no clear way of valuing the full range of benefits they provide beyond what we can buy and sell. The UK NEA introduces groundbreaking approaches to measure the value of these services and how they will be affected in future if we do not make the right choices now. The NEA shows that we need a more integrated approach to ecosystem management, involving Government, the private sector, voluntary groups and the public working together to protect the services nature provides.”

The Defra White Paper, which should be released later this month, is expected to include actions on some of the key findings of the national ecosystem assessment. Planning policy is also expected to be affected by the release of this report, which currently puts little value on green spaces, and does not ensure adequate protection of ecosystem services or biodiversity.

The BES policy team tweeted from the launch event.
@BESpolicy

The Defra press release can be seen here.