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 farmer with a conservationist in Montana, USA

Conservationists share ‘core aims’ but clash over ways forward, study finds

09 Apr 2019

Research reveals rifts within global movement – from economic approaches to protected areas – while confirming support for aims underpinning it.

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Galapagos finch specimens from Museum of Zoology, collected on the second voyage of HMS Beagle that carried Darwin to the Islands. Researchers say these famously diverse finches are an iconic example of rapid speciation in the tropics.

Species ‘hotspots’ created by immigrant influx or evolutionary speed depending on climate

06 Feb 2019

New research reveals that biodiversity ‘hotspots’ in the tropics produced new species at faster rates over the last 25 million years, but those in...

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Rothiemurchus Forest

Restoring Europe’s endangered landscapes for life

09 Oct 2018

Cambridge Conservation Initiative (CCI) last week unveiled a programme to restore priority landscapes across Europe. The Endangered Landscapes...

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Harvest

‘High-yield’ farming costs the environment less than previously thought – and could help spare habitats

14 Sep 2018

New findings suggest that more intensive agriculture might be the “least bad” option for feeding the world while saving its species – provided use of...

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Illuminating the hidden kingdom of the truffle

12 Feb 2018

Truffles are one of the world’s most expensive ingredients, and also one of the most mysterious. Now, with the help of a 170-year-old ‘living...

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Commercial honeybee hives in the Teide National Park, Tenerife, Spain.

Think of honeybees as ‘livestock’ not wildlife, argue experts

25 Jan 2018

Contrary to public perception, die-offs in honeybee colonies are an agricultural not a conservation issue, argue Cambridge researchers, who say that...

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Black-tailed godwit (Limosa limosa), a waterbird with habitats ranging from the Russian far-east to Europe, Africa, and Australasia.

Political instability and weak governance lead to loss of species, study finds

20 Dec 2017

Big data study of global biodiversity shows ineffective national governance is a better indicator of species decline than any other measure of “...

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Conservationists’ eco-footprints suggest education alone won’t change behaviour

10 Oct 2017

A new study shows that even those presumably best informed on the environment find it hard to consistently “walk the walk”, prompting scientists to...

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Cambridge University Botanic Garden (CUBG)

World's botanic gardens contain a third of all known plant species, and help protect the most threatened

25 Sep 2017

The most in-depth species survey to date finds an “astonishing array” of plant diversity in the global botanic garden network, including 41% of all...

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In Peruvian Amazon Rainforest

‘Keep it local’ approach to protecting the rainforest can be more effective than government schemes

12 Sep 2017

Conservation initiatives led by local and indigenous groups can be just as effective as schemes led by government, according to new research. In some...

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Hopetoun Falls, Beech Forest, near Otway National Park, Victoria, Australia.

Opinion: Are universities ready for a new kind of science?

06 Jun 2017

Is the knowledge and scholarship that universities produce relevant to the problems the world faces? In a new essay co-authored with an international...

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Golden Lion Tamarin, an endangered species that has grown from 200 to more than 3,200 individuals in three decades.

#EarthOptimism: Recovering species must be celebrated or we risk reversing progress

20 Apr 2017

Cambridge conservationists will unite with colleagues across the globe on Earth Day this Saturday to lionise environmental victories and show there...

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