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.

A wild horse on Wicken Fen, UK

Cambridge researchers to tackle major threats to 'UK’s vegetable garden'

15 Feb 2022

Cambridge researchers will tackle environmental threats that could affect a third of England’s home-grown vegetables and more than a quarter of the...

Read more
Rabbit and birds painting.

The Lost Words: a ‘spell book’ that closes the gap between childhood and nature

01 Jan 2022

The Lost Words is a book by Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris that summons the magic of nature to help children find, love and protect the natural...

Read more

Pangolin trafficking: Iceberg tip of Nigeria's illegal trade revealed

04 Nov 2021

New findings on Nigerian-linked pangolin seizures suggest that current global estimates for trafficking of the animal are far too small, say...

Read more

Map showing global areas of importance for terrestrial biodiversity, carbon and water

Integrated conservation strategies could simultaneously meet biodiversity, climate and water objectives

23 Aug 2021

Managing a strategically chosen 30% of land for conservation could safeguard 70% of all terrestrial plant and vertebrate animal species, while...

Read more

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...

Read more
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...

Read more

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...

Read more
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...

Read more

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...

Read more

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...

Read more

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...

Read more
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...

Read more

Pages