Accounting for Nature in Policy and Practice - Professor Richard Gregory

In this interview, Professor Richard Gregory joins us for a discussion on how we can work with nature to deliver benefits for biodiversity, the climate and people. We discuss the promises and potential pitfalls of so-called “nature-based solutions” and examples of how such interventions are already being successfully implemented. Richard also offers reflections on bridging the gap between conservation science and policy planning and the need to meaningfully account for the many benefits that humans derive from healthy, biodiverse ecosystems. Finally, we talk about how these issues can best be communicated to a wider public and how people and local communities can make direct contributions to research, policy and practice in this area.

Professor Richard Gregory is Head of Monitoring at the RSPB Centre for Conservation Science and Honorary Professor at the UCL Centre for Biodiversity and Environment Research (CBER). His research covers a wide variety of issues in the area of conservation and biodiversity science, including biological survey design, biodiversity monitoring, metrics and indicators, climatic change indicators, citizen science, setting conservation priorities, measuring natural capital and ecosystem services, environmental indicators, understanding the impacts of land use and climate change on nature, and whether conservation works. Richard is particularly interested in how conservation science can support evidence-based decision making in policy and practice and he is a keen communicator of science to diverse audiences.

This is the first part of a GGI interview series featuring “Conversations on the Intersection of Biodiversity, Climate Change and Health.” The series forms part of a GGI project on the prospects for “A Shared Agenda for the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals on Biodiversity and Climate Change,” funded by UCL Grand Challenges and the UCL Global Engagement Office.

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• RSPB 2019 State of Nature report (rspb.org.uk)
• The Role of Nature in a UK NDC (rspb.org.uk), on integrating nature-based solutions in the UK’s Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) under the Paris Agreement
• The Role of Nature-based Solutions for Climate Change Adaptation in UK Policy (naturebasedsolutionsinitiative.org)
• Climate Change Adaptation Manual (naturalengland.org.uk), on supporting nature conservation in a changing climate
• Nature Helps our Fight for a Safe Climate (arcgis.com)
• For more information and resources on nature-based solutions, visit the website of the Nature-Based Solutions Initiative (naturebasedsolutionsinitiative.org)