ARI 12 Land-use changes required for biodiversity, ecosystem services, ‘nature-based solutions’ aimed at enhancing ecological health, and food security.

Background

Within the question group Nature and Ecological Resilience, we aim to increase our understanding of pathways to achieve targets and commitments to halt and reverse the loss of biodiversity on land, within soil and freshwater, and at sea, including understanding drivers, pressures, ecological resilience, and the effectiveness and implementation of environmental law. Pressures of interest to us include fisheries, development for energy production and other purposes, and pollution.

Next steps

To engage with the Office for Environmental Protection about research, please complete this short form: https://forms.office.com/e/NDy4gfW6sX

Source

This question was published as part of the set of ARIs in this document:

OEP Areas of Research Interest 2026

Related UKRI funded projects

  • Delivering multiple ecosystem service benefits in real landscapes

    Ecosystems and their biodiversity deliver products such as food, fibre and fuel, as well as a range of essential services such as climate regulation, water and soil regulation and cultural and recreational services, whic...

    Funded by: NERC

    Lead research organisation: University of York

    Why might this be relevant?

    The project focuses on delivering multiple ecosystem service benefits in real landscapes, addressing the relationship between biodiversity, ecosystem functioning, and ecosystem services.

  • Upscaling biodiversity - ecosystem functioning research using intertidal forests as a model system (BEF-SCALE)

    Human activities have already raised global species extinction rates a thousand-fold and have pushed an additional million species towards extinction. Biodiversity is also rapidly changing on more local scales as climate...

    Funded by: NERC

    Lead research organisation: Swansea University

    Why might this be relevant?

    The project aims to upscale biodiversity-ecosystem functioning research using intertidal forests as a model system, addressing the influence of biodiversity on ecosystem functions.

  • Restoring Resilient Ecosystems (RestREco)

    There is a global biodiversity crisis driven by mounting pressures including land degradation and climate change. Within the UK, responses include the Government's 25 Year Environment Plan, which sets out a vision to sec...

    Funded by: NERC

    Lead research organisation: Centre for Ecology & Hydrology

  • Restoring Resilient Ecosystems (RestREco)

    There is a global biodiversity crisis driven by mounting pressures including land degradation and climate change. Within the UK, responses include the Government's 25 Year Environment Plan, which sets out a vision to sec...

    Funded by: NERC

    Lead research organisation: National Trust

    Why might this be relevant?

    The project focuses on restoring resilient ecosystems and ecological restoration, which partially addresses the question by discussing the need for a new paradigm in ecological restoration.

  • Science for Evidence-based and sustainable decisions about Natural capital

    The importance of biodiversity (BD) and healthy ecosystems and the services they deliver has increasingly been acknowledged. Policy initiatives, such as the EU BD Strategies 2020 and 2030, IPBES, IPCC and CBD were launch...

    Funded by: Horizon Europe Guarantee

    Lead research organisation: SOUTH ATLANTIC ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE

  • Science for Evidence-based and sustainabLe decIsions about NAtural capital

    The importance of biodiversity (BD) and healthy ecosystems and the services they deliver has increasingly been acknowledged. Policy initiatives, such as the EU BD Strategies 2020 and 2030, IPBES, IPCC and CBD were launch...

    Funded by: Horizon Europe Guarantee

    Lead research organisation: WCMC

  • OBSERVATION OF ECOSYSTEM CHANGES FOR ACTION (OBSGESSION)

    The objective and key ambition of OBSGESSION is to monitor and predict biodiversity change and its direct and indirect drivers in terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems through the integration of state-of-the-art multi-se...

    Funded by: Horizon Europe Guarantee

    Lead research organisation: WCMC

  • Landscape Regeneration Solutions to the Interlinked Extinction and Climate Crises that support Sustainable Development

    Nature-based solutions (NbS*) are responses to societal challenges that involve working with nature to deliver benefits for both people and biodiversity. They include protecting existing ecosystems, restoring degraded ec...

    Funded by: NERC

    Lead research organisation: Centre for Ecology & Hydrology

  • How does global land-use change reshape ecological assemblages over time?

    Terrestrial biodiversity is declining globally because of human impacts, of which land-use change has so far been the most important. When people change how land is used, many of the species originally present decline or...

    Funded by: NERC

    Lead research organisation: Natural History Museum

  • Robust conservation for a dynamic world

    The need to understand how human life and biodiversity can coexist has never been more urgent. Humans are transforming environments at a pace that other species have never evolved to cope with, and no area of the planet ...

    Funded by: UKRI FLF

    Lead research organisation: University of Liverpool

Similar ARIs from other organisations

Measuring change What is the status of our natural environment, is it being effectively monitored to note change in the UK and globally? We require robust, reliable data and information that can be used to assess status and trends in the natural environment (genetic and species diversity and trends, invasive species, habitats extent, condition and character, as well as soils and ecosystem services and functions) Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs, 2021
Full details