Topic description and stories

Life on Earth is at risk from an unprecedented rate of environmental change that threatens the natural resources on which we depend.

The conservationist helping us to make better decisions

04 Jun 2021

Bill Sutherland has started a revolution in conservation. Put simply he’d “like us to stop doing the things that we know don't work and do more of...

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River mussel

Conservationists may be unintentionally spreading pathogens between threatened animal populations

12 Apr 2021

Moving endangered species to new locations is often used as part of species conservation strategies, and can help to restore degraded ecosystems. But...

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Beyond the pandemic: build a greener future

09 Nov 2020

It is crucial that recovery from the pandemic is shaped to support the responses to climate change and biodiversity loss if we hope to mitigate yet...

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Baby orangutans in Central Kalimantan. Expansion of oil palm plantations is destroying their forest habitat.

Climate change and food demand could shrink species’ habitats by almost a quarter by 2100

06 Nov 2020

Mammals, birds and amphibians worldwide have lost on average 18% of their natural habitat range as a result of changes in land use and climate change...

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Call of the wild collector

28 Aug 2020

Walking at ‘botanist pace’ on Mount Terror in South Africa, Dr Ángela Cano likes to stop and smell the succulents. She then measures, photographs...

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Researcher recording data on a group of habituated chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus) in Taï National Park, Ivory Coast.

Understand what works when trying to protect monkeys and apes, say scientists

26 Aug 2020

Despite significant protection efforts, global populations of monkeys and apes are declining dramatically. A new study has found that the...

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Beyond the pandemic: reduce the risk of animal viruses jumping to humans

30 Jul 2020

Cambridge zoologists Bill Sutherland and Silviu Petrovan warn that we must dramatically change the way we interact with animals to reduce the risk of...

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Pouring water on person's hands

Cambridge-designed curriculum teaches schoolchildren about water scarcity and climate activism

17 Jan 2020

Students and teachers across India now have free access to a new curriculum on water security and sustainability, co-developed by researchers at the...

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Dr Jane Goodall DBE

Dr Jane Goodall on the environment: "My greatest hope is our young people"

14 Jan 2020

In a new film, Dr Jane Goodall DBE talks about the environmental crisis and her reasons for hope.

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Women in STEM: Flora Donald

19 Dec 2019

Flora Donald is a PhD candidate who splits her time between the Department of Plant Sciences and the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology. Here, she...

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Women in STEM: Sophia Cooke

12 Dec 2019

Sophia Cooke is a PhD candidate in the Department of Zoology, and a member of King's College. Here, she tells us about splitting her time between...

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Ecosystems Overload

10 Dec 2019

We are laying waste to the biosphere. If we're serious about saving millions of species, then it's our own that must change how it thinks about...

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