High-TEK: Using beekeepers' environmental knowledge to enhance sustainable agriculture and land management
Lead Research Organisation:
Aberystwyth University
Department Name: Inst of Geography and Earth Sciences
Abstract
Building on my PhD research, this Fellowship will explore how to successfully incorporate beekeepers' traditional environmental knowledge (TEK) into sustainable land management.
In the current era of climate change, environmental breakdown, and post-Brexit plans for radical restructuring of agriculture and land use throughout the UK, the plight of pollinators is but one of many challenges to be addressed. Pollinators are central to both biodiversity and food security (Potts et al 2010). Significant declines of all pollinators, as well as other species, are a cause of immense concern amongst both the academic and wider community (Sanchez-Bayo and Wyckhuys, 2019). Recent years have seen an international response to pollinator decline, with many countries drafting pollinator policies. Throughout these policy responses is an acknowledgement that beekeepers are key stakeholders in monitoring, and reversing, pollinator decline (Maderson and Wynne-Jones, 2016). Given the urgency of the problem, and the recognition of beekeepers as key stakeholders, one could assume that beekeepers' insights would be consistenly supporting initiatives to ensure the radical reforms needed in the food system, as well as wider land management developments and strateges needed for pollinator wellbeing. My doctoral research examined the environmental knowledge of long-term beekeepers, and discovered a wealth of under-utilised knowledge that spanned both tacit and scientific understanding. My research finds that beekeepers' unique knowledge has significant potential to enhance environmental governance, thus supporting biodiversity and food security. Currently, this knowledge is not achieving its environmentally transformative potential. Historically, such tacit knowledge has been undervalued by policy-makers and the scientific community.
This fellowship will provide me with the necessary time to communicate my PhD findings in academic and other contexts, thus maximising the impact of the important insights of my research at this key time of rappraisal of current land management approaches. It will also allow me to operationalise my findings, by carrying out a series of interviews with policy and decision makers. Discussing my findings with these key audiences will maximise the potential for my research to bring about necessary improvements in land management and sustainable agriculture. The fellowship will also allow me to meet and work with international experts studying, and using TEK to support sustainability. TEK can broaden our understanding of environmental and social factors that can ultimately increase our resilience to environmental challenges (Berkes, Colding and Folke, 2000).
This fellowship will support the aims and objectives of the UK's Industrial Strategy, as I will work with Apis Consulting, who advise private and public land managers as to how best to support pollinator wellbeing on their lands. I will prepare relevant educational material based on my research which will increase the impact of their consultancy work. Apis Consulting and I will collaboratively develop successful methods to maximise land management strategies for pollinators, and resultant wider biodiversity.
Effectively engaging with beekeepers' knowledge and recommendations requires thoughtful negotiation through epistemological tensions, and an interdisciplinary understanding of factors affecting pollinators and the wider environment. Yet these issues are not only relevant to beekeepers' knowledge. The issue of diverse knowldges, and what counts as expertise, is important politically and environmentally (Riley, 2009). As the global community struggles to respond to challenges to our food systems, and our environment, developing more inclusive methods of engaging with diverse knowledge will be a crucial part of navigating the 21st century.
In the current era of climate change, environmental breakdown, and post-Brexit plans for radical restructuring of agriculture and land use throughout the UK, the plight of pollinators is but one of many challenges to be addressed. Pollinators are central to both biodiversity and food security (Potts et al 2010). Significant declines of all pollinators, as well as other species, are a cause of immense concern amongst both the academic and wider community (Sanchez-Bayo and Wyckhuys, 2019). Recent years have seen an international response to pollinator decline, with many countries drafting pollinator policies. Throughout these policy responses is an acknowledgement that beekeepers are key stakeholders in monitoring, and reversing, pollinator decline (Maderson and Wynne-Jones, 2016). Given the urgency of the problem, and the recognition of beekeepers as key stakeholders, one could assume that beekeepers' insights would be consistenly supporting initiatives to ensure the radical reforms needed in the food system, as well as wider land management developments and strateges needed for pollinator wellbeing. My doctoral research examined the environmental knowledge of long-term beekeepers, and discovered a wealth of under-utilised knowledge that spanned both tacit and scientific understanding. My research finds that beekeepers' unique knowledge has significant potential to enhance environmental governance, thus supporting biodiversity and food security. Currently, this knowledge is not achieving its environmentally transformative potential. Historically, such tacit knowledge has been undervalued by policy-makers and the scientific community.
This fellowship will provide me with the necessary time to communicate my PhD findings in academic and other contexts, thus maximising the impact of the important insights of my research at this key time of rappraisal of current land management approaches. It will also allow me to operationalise my findings, by carrying out a series of interviews with policy and decision makers. Discussing my findings with these key audiences will maximise the potential for my research to bring about necessary improvements in land management and sustainable agriculture. The fellowship will also allow me to meet and work with international experts studying, and using TEK to support sustainability. TEK can broaden our understanding of environmental and social factors that can ultimately increase our resilience to environmental challenges (Berkes, Colding and Folke, 2000).
This fellowship will support the aims and objectives of the UK's Industrial Strategy, as I will work with Apis Consulting, who advise private and public land managers as to how best to support pollinator wellbeing on their lands. I will prepare relevant educational material based on my research which will increase the impact of their consultancy work. Apis Consulting and I will collaboratively develop successful methods to maximise land management strategies for pollinators, and resultant wider biodiversity.
Effectively engaging with beekeepers' knowledge and recommendations requires thoughtful negotiation through epistemological tensions, and an interdisciplinary understanding of factors affecting pollinators and the wider environment. Yet these issues are not only relevant to beekeepers' knowledge. The issue of diverse knowldges, and what counts as expertise, is important politically and environmentally (Riley, 2009). As the global community struggles to respond to challenges to our food systems, and our environment, developing more inclusive methods of engaging with diverse knowledge will be a crucial part of navigating the 21st century.
People |
ORCID iD |
| Siobhan Maderson (Principal Investigator / Fellow) |
Publications
Donkersley P
(2020)
A One-Health Model for Reversing Honeybee (Apis mellifera L.) Decline.
in Veterinary sciences
Maderson S
(2023)
Beekeeping, stewardship and multispecies care in rural contexts
in Sociologia Ruralis
Maderson S
(2023)
Co-producing agricultural policy with beekeepers: Obstacles and opportunities
in Land Use Policy
Maderson S
(2021)
Does science have all the answers?
in Futurum Careers
| Description | This fellowship facilitated my developing my PhD findings on beekeepers' environmental knowledge, and their associated values, into a wider actionable context. Through developing research networks with colleagues at the Stockholm Resilience Centre, I have positioned my research into the context of other place-based knowledge holders' environmental understandings, and how this can be utilized for better environmental governance and developing Just Transitions towards sustainability. Although the members of this research network are all working with significantly different communities - European farmers, Kenyan pastoralists, and Australian Aboriginal communities, to name but a few - we are investigating the similarities of these communities' knowledge, and the shared challenges groups find when working to have their experiential understandings validated and acted upon within environmental governance. Local communities' environmental knowledge is often connected to relational values that support sustainable practices; as such, their inclusion is encouraged by the latest IPBES values assessment. Finding the common features throughout seemingly disparate groups, and how Traditional Environmental Knowledge manifests in Communities of Practice, is a valuable step towards recognizing groups holding relational values which can be operationalised to drive sustainable transitions. The two academic papers published during this fellowship document the development of an actionable route for agri-environmental policy to incorporate the long-term, place based knowledge of beekeepers, and other Communities of Practice. The papers illustrate the shared challenges of these groups, but also describe clear routes towards successfully incorporating knowledge which does not conform to standard epidemiological expectations of understandings of pollinator health, but is still valuable in generating a full picture of how pollinators and other species are impacted by local environmental complexities. The papers also explore the significant but previously unexplored issue of the environmental values associated with beekeepers, its generation through practice, and its parallel to the environmental values of other communities whose lives are enmeshed with other species. For many years, there had been an emphasis on assessing and promoting ecosystem services, which were often ascribed an economic value. It is now recognized that this financialization of multi-species relationships is highly problematic, and can actually undermine more significant, relational values that support conservation practices. By exploring and publishing on the presence and the potential of beekeepers' environmental values, this fellowship has resulted in new knowledge which can support environmental regeneration. Through my diverse activities undertaken during the fellowship, I am now pursuing the research question of how to incorporate beekeepers' knowledge, and values, into wider elements of food system transformation. This includes multi-scalar analyses of land use, and maximizing efficiency of land use, thus ensuring a greater capacity for biodiversity within the food-producing environment. I am also investigating questions of how to decrease food waste at all stages of the food system. By using land more efficiently, the negative environmental changes resultant from the mid-late 20th century moves towards a productivist agenda can be reversed, recreating a mixed-use approach to food production which also incorporates agro-ecological principles of inclusive governance. Using food-producing land more efficiently will require dietary behaviour change, as well as food systems governance transformation. Multi-species relationships that embody care and stewardship are also an important part of these changes to our food system. |
| Exploitation Route | Pollinator well-being is a key concern within wider studies of declining biodiversity. My research findings introduce a significant new knowledge source that will be of interest to conservationists, biodiversity researchers, agronomists, and others working on the agri-environment, namely, the site-specific phenological data, coupled with comparisons of micro-climates, and knowledge of local socioeconomic drivers impacting pollinator health within locales. Many long-term beekeepers in my research also come from STEMM backgrounds, giving them a complex and valuable insight into environmental conditions that affect bees and other species. These findings can be utilised by others working in these fields. I envisage my research findings also being relevant by both academics and practitioners who are working to understand how to develop multi-scalar environmental understandings which incorporate diverse forms of knowledge, as well as relational values. There are significant efforts within the context of Just Transitions, and the development of Argo-Ecological methods, to ensure greater inclusion of multiple communities. My research was consistently interdisciplinary, and incorporated theoretical insights from political ecology and human geography, as well as analysing qualitative data from beekeepers within the context of current scientific research on pollinator wellbeing and environmental management. This interdisciplinary approach is valuable in ensuring that sustainable transitions are both inclusive and scientifically informed. |
| Sectors | Agriculture, Food and Drink,Environment,Government, Democracy and Justice,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections |
| Description | My findings have been reported in several beekeeping magazines. This has led beekeepers to have a greater recognition of the value of their practice, and the knowledge generated, and records kept, throughout their practice. |
| Sector | Agriculture, Food and Drink,Environment,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections |
| Impact Types | Societal |
| Description | CAT teaching on communities and environmental restoration |
| Geographic Reach | Multiple continents/international |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| Impact | Students reacted very positively to this module and many chose to focus on this topic for both their module assessments, and their MSc theses, noting that my interdisciplinary approach was a highly valuable yet frequently overlooked aspect of the course they were studying. |
| Description | COnsultation Response: National Action Plan for the Sustainable Use of Pesticides |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Contribution to a national consultation/review |
| Description | Lecture for BioInnovation Wales, on Pollination as a Public Good |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| Description | Member of British Ecological Society Reviewing College |
| Geographic Reach | Multiple continents/international |
| Policy Influence Type | Membership of a guideline committee |
| Description | Seminar for UKFS CDT |
| Geographic Reach | Multiple continents/international |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| Impact | The UK Food Systems CDT cohort contacted the organisers of their seminars and specifically requested that I be approached to offer a seminar based on my research. I delivered a seminar on Multiple Evidence Bases, Mixed Methds and Food Systems. The seminar focused on interdisciplinary research, multiple data types, and transdisciplinary working with non-academic partners. This seminar was enthusiastically received by the students and the CDT organisers, who have subsequently requested that I take part in other activities run by the UKFS CDT. |
| Description | Teaching MSc Environmental Management Students |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| Impact | Students were encouraged to think about how different environmental challenges are understood and experienced by differing communities, and the importance of addressing environmental challenges threough coalitions of multiple, diverse stakeholders, including legal professionals, environmental consultants, local community representatives and more. |
| Description | Teaching MSc students Aberystwyth University - Managing Environmental Change in Practice |
| Geographic Reach | Europe |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| Impact | Students actively engaged with material and reported to course coordinator that this seminar had been one of the most useful and relevant of their course. |
| Description | Global Food Security Policy Lab |
| Organisation | Global Food Security |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | I successfully applied to be part of the Global Food Security (GFS) Policy Lab, a programme for PhD candidates and ECRs to develop professional networks and gain experience at developing evidence-based policy for food system transformation. A three day workshop included presentations and activities around food waste. I was then part of the winning Policy Lab team which was invited to develop a policy-facing brief on decreasing food waste. |
| Collaborator Contribution | A team of seven researchers ( Bernd Bonfert (Cardiff University); Miranda Burke (Lancaster University); Aoife Caffrey (Ulster University); Siobhan Maderson (Aberystwyth University); Amy Molotoks (Stockholm Environment Institute, University of York); Justine Pearce (Royal Veterinary College); Mehroosh Tak (Royal Veterinary College) ) ran a series of focus groups for stakeholders working at multiple points throughout the food system. We investigated whether True Cost Accounting (TCA) could support collaborative efforts throughout the food system to decrease food waste. Working with the Global Food Security programme, we published a report on our research. |
| Impact | A team of seven researchers ( Bernd Bonfert (Cardiff University); Miranda Burke (Lancaster University); Aoife Caffrey (Ulster University); Siobhan Maderson (Aberystwyth University); Amy Molotoks (Stockholm Environment Institute, University of York); Justine Pearce (Royal Veterinary College); Mehroosh Tak (Royal Veterinary College) ) ran a series of worksops and then published a report on our research. The Executive Summary was launched at COP 26, with a short film on our research shown as part of the UKRI Green Zone exhibit. The full report is being released during Science Week, March 2022. Both GFS and UKRI are promoting the report and video and circulating hard copies to key stakeholders and policy makers across the UK and devolved governments. UKRI are also promoting it through more public engagement channels. The full report is accessible via http://www.foodsecurity.ac.uk/publications/a-tool-in-the-toolkit-can-true-cost-accounting-remove-siloed-thinking-about-food-loss-and-waste.pdf |
| Start Year | 2021 |
| Description | Global Food Security Policy Lab |
| Organisation | Global Food Security |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | I successfully applied to be part of the Global Food Security (GFS) Policy Lab, a programme for PhD candidates and ECRs to develop professional networks and gain experience at developing evidence-based policy for food system transformation. A three day workshop included presentations and activities around food waste. I was then part of the winning Policy Lab team which was invited to develop a policy-facing brief on decreasing food waste. |
| Collaborator Contribution | A team of seven researchers ( Bernd Bonfert (Cardiff University); Miranda Burke (Lancaster University); Aoife Caffrey (Ulster University); Siobhan Maderson (Aberystwyth University); Amy Molotoks (Stockholm Environment Institute, University of York); Justine Pearce (Royal Veterinary College); Mehroosh Tak (Royal Veterinary College) ) ran a series of focus groups for stakeholders working at multiple points throughout the food system. We investigated whether True Cost Accounting (TCA) could support collaborative efforts throughout the food system to decrease food waste. Working with the Global Food Security programme, we published a report on our research. |
| Impact | A team of seven researchers ( Bernd Bonfert (Cardiff University); Miranda Burke (Lancaster University); Aoife Caffrey (Ulster University); Siobhan Maderson (Aberystwyth University); Amy Molotoks (Stockholm Environment Institute, University of York); Justine Pearce (Royal Veterinary College); Mehroosh Tak (Royal Veterinary College) ) ran a series of worksops and then published a report on our research. The Executive Summary was launched at COP 26, with a short film on our research shown as part of the UKRI Green Zone exhibit. The full report is being released during Science Week, March 2022. Both GFS and UKRI are promoting the report and video and circulating hard copies to key stakeholders and policy makers across the UK and devolved governments. UKRI are also promoting it through more public engagement channels. The full report is accessible via http://www.foodsecurity.ac.uk/publications/a-tool-in-the-toolkit-can-true-cost-accounting-remove-siloed-thinking-about-food-loss-and-waste.pdf |
| Start Year | 2021 |
| Description | Growing Agro-Ecological Systems: Linking Growers, GIS and Genetic Diversity to Improve Land and Human Health Grant Reference: BB/W017768/1 |
| Organisation | Aberystwyth University |
| Department | Department of Geography and Earth Sciences |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Working with a team of colleagues in the geography department and IBERS, as well as non-academic partners including the Land Workers Alliance, a local council, and a significant range of NGO's, I have contributed to a full proposal in response to the BBSRC call for interdisciplinary, co-designed proposals to transform food systems. The proposal was highly competitive, with only a small percentage of EOIs being asked to develop and submit full proposals. Our team was asked to submit a full proposal; we are currently awaiting a final decision. I made a very significant contribution to this proposal, suggesting some of the key non-academic stakeholders who should be part of the proposal design. I suggested the focus on researching agro-ecological methods, noting current obstacles to growers and distributors. I encouraged co-design throughout the project, and this was highlighted in the response to the EOI, and reviewers' comments on the full application, as a notable strength in the project. One reviewer suggested that I should be listed as a Co-I on the proposal, although I am currently listed as a PDRA, due to my not having a permanent position and thus being precluded by Je-S. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Developing this proposal through this collaborative process has been a key element of my research work and development during this year. The partnership brings together a strong and unique collaboration of crop scientists, GIS specialists, Remote Sensing experts, and a strong and diverse coalition of stakeholders outside academia, all of whom are interested in investigating, and overcoming, barriers to the scaling up of agroecological food production, as well asensuring such products move beyond their current 'niche' status. The fact that the EOI was invited to develop a full proposal reflects well on the diverse and complementary contributions. |
| Impact | This partnership is currently awaiting the outcome of the final proposal. The collaboration is multi-disciplinary, and brings together a strong and unique collaboration of crop scientists, GIS specialists, Remote Sensing experts, agro-ecological food producers, local government actors, and logistics specialists. |
| Start Year | 2021 |
| Description | Growing Agro-Ecological Systems: Linking Growers, GIS and Genetic Diversity to Improve Land and Human Health Grant Reference: BB/W017768/1 |
| Organisation | Aberystwyth University |
| Department | Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences (IBERS) |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Working with a team of colleagues in the geography department and IBERS, as well as non-academic partners including the Land Workers Alliance, a local council, and a significant range of NGO's, I have contributed to a full proposal in response to the BBSRC call for interdisciplinary, co-designed proposals to transform food systems. The proposal was highly competitive, with only a small percentage of EOIs being asked to develop and submit full proposals. Our team was asked to submit a full proposal; we are currently awaiting a final decision. I made a very significant contribution to this proposal, suggesting some of the key non-academic stakeholders who should be part of the proposal design. I suggested the focus on researching agro-ecological methods, noting current obstacles to growers and distributors. I encouraged co-design throughout the project, and this was highlighted in the response to the EOI, and reviewers' comments on the full application, as a notable strength in the project. One reviewer suggested that I should be listed as a Co-I on the proposal, although I am currently listed as a PDRA, due to my not having a permanent position and thus being precluded by Je-S. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Developing this proposal through this collaborative process has been a key element of my research work and development during this year. The partnership brings together a strong and unique collaboration of crop scientists, GIS specialists, Remote Sensing experts, and a strong and diverse coalition of stakeholders outside academia, all of whom are interested in investigating, and overcoming, barriers to the scaling up of agroecological food production, as well asensuring such products move beyond their current 'niche' status. The fact that the EOI was invited to develop a full proposal reflects well on the diverse and complementary contributions. |
| Impact | This partnership is currently awaiting the outcome of the final proposal. The collaboration is multi-disciplinary, and brings together a strong and unique collaboration of crop scientists, GIS specialists, Remote Sensing experts, agro-ecological food producers, local government actors, and logistics specialists. |
| Start Year | 2021 |
| Description | Maderson - Bermondsey Bees |
| Organisation | Bermondsey Street Bees |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Private |
| PI Contribution | Based on collaborative discussions with Bermondsey Bees, I have prepared the first of a series of short, publicly accessible, scientifically based guidance on improving the health and wellbeing of pollinators. This first piece is 'Helping Bees In The City: Facts, Fictions and Guidance'. Further guidance pieces will address: the role of beekeepers in supporting bee health; pollinators in the food system; and the benefits of beekeeping to citizen science. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Supporting research aims, and providing guidance on developing end-user relevant research. |
| Impact | Based on co-designing partnership, I have prepared the first in a series of guidance for land managers who may approach Bermondsey Bees for consultancy advice on enhancing the built envrionment for pollinators. 'Helping Bees In The City: Facts, Fictions and Guidance' is designed to be short, scientifically based, and targeted advice that can be easily used by any developers or landowners. Further guidance on the following topics will include:the role of beekeepers in supporting bee health; pollinators in the food system; the benefits of beekeeping to citizen science, |
| Start Year | 2020 |
| Description | Maderson - Bermondsey Bees |
| Organisation | Bermondsey Street Bees |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Private |
| PI Contribution | Based on collaborative discussions with Bermondsey Bees, I have prepared the first of a series of short, publicly accessible, scientifically based guidance on improving the health and wellbeing of pollinators. This first piece is 'Helping Bees In The City: Facts, Fictions and Guidance'. Further guidance pieces will address: the role of beekeepers in supporting bee health; pollinators in the food system; and the benefits of beekeeping to citizen science. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Supporting research aims, and providing guidance on developing end-user relevant research. |
| Impact | Based on co-designing partnership, I have prepared the first in a series of guidance for land managers who may approach Bermondsey Bees for consultancy advice on enhancing the built envrionment for pollinators. 'Helping Bees In The City: Facts, Fictions and Guidance' is designed to be short, scientifically based, and targeted advice that can be easily used by any developers or landowners. Further guidance on the following topics will include:the role of beekeepers in supporting bee health; pollinators in the food system; the benefits of beekeeping to citizen science, |
| Start Year | 2020 |
| Description | Working relationship with colleagues at SLU |
| Organisation | Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences |
| Department | Swedish Foundation for Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Country | Sweden |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | As a result of connections made via the POLLEN political ecology network, I was invited to visit colleagues at SLU and deliver a seminar to students and staff on my work on beekeepers' environmental knowledge. |
| Collaborator Contribution | n/a |
| Impact | This visit and guest seminar resulted in my meeting with further colleagues at SLU, including some of the world's leading researchers on bee health and the agri-environment. Colleagues at SLU are currently working on a Horizon 2020 project on wild pollinators, and we have agreed to continue working on these issues of shared interest. |
| Start Year | 2022 |
| Description | Working relationship with colleagues at SLU |
| Organisation | Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences |
| Department | Swedish Foundation for Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Country | Sweden |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | As a result of connections made via the POLLEN political ecology network, I was invited to visit colleagues at SLU and deliver a seminar to students and staff on my work on beekeepers' environmental knowledge. |
| Collaborator Contribution | n/a |
| Impact | This visit and guest seminar resulted in my meeting with further colleagues at SLU, including some of the world's leading researchers on bee health and the agri-environment. Colleagues at SLU are currently working on a Horizon 2020 project on wild pollinators, and we have agreed to continue working on these issues of shared interest. |
| Start Year | 2022 |
| Description | Working relationship with colleagues at Stockholm Resilience Centre |
| Organisation | Stockholm Resilience Centre |
| Country | Sweden |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | A three week visiting scholar research trip to the Stockholm Resilience Centre (SRC) resulted in my being invited to deliver a seminar to SRC staff and students. |
| Collaborator Contribution | SRC partners arranged and hosted my visit, and facilitated my presenting my research to some of the world's leading researchers on sustainability and resilience, and socio-ecological transformations. They arranged for me to deliver a seminar to staff and students. |
| Impact | This institutional visit has led to plans for further research and collaborations between myself and SRC researchers on several important topics of shared interest, including the barriers and potential benefits of engaging with hybrid and tacit knowledge forms in agro-environmental transitions and environmental management. |
| Start Year | 2021 |
| Description | Article for Beecraft magazine |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | Was invoted by one one of Beecraft's editors to write article 'Beekeepers' Environmental Knowledge: A Key Piece of the Pollinator Protection Puzzle'. Beecraft is one the UK's leading magazines, with a readership of over 8,000. The article discusses environmental and phrnological records kept by beekeepers, and the importance of these to understanding and monitoring environmental change. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| Description | Article for The Conversation |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | I wrote an article for The Conversation on food waste, and how it can be reduced. The article has been read by over 7,000 people, and shared via multiple media outlets. It has generated significant discussion amongst readers through multiple sources, with several noting that they were unaware of certain easy methods of reducing food waste. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://theconversation.com/five-ways-to-cut-down-on-food-waste-and-why-it-matters-171347 |
| Description | Article for The Conversation |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | I wrote an article for The Conversation on my research on beekeepers' environmental observations, and how people can use this information to change their land management practices to improve the environment. Article was published online in July 2021, and has been read by over 72,000 people. The article provoked lively discussion amongst readers. It has also been extensively reproduced and distributed through other media outlets. I have also been contacted by a Bulgarian educational publishing company, who are using my article as an English language teaching resource. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://theconversation.com/life-lessons-from-beekeepers-stop-mowing-the-lawn-dont-pave-the-driveway... |
| Description | Article for Welsh Beekeeping Assocation |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | Published 'Understanding, and Tackling Climate Change with Beekeepers' Environmental Knowledge ' in the winter 2020 edition of Welsh Beekeeper - the quarterly journal for Welsh Beekeeping Association. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| Description | Interview for national radio |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | I was interviewed by Guto Harri for BBC Radio Wales, about my Hay Festival Lunchtime Lecture; The Great Reset: Co-designing an inclusive, sustainable, post-pandemic future |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000wl9x |
| Description | Invited participant in Hidden Histories of Environmental Science Consultation Event |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | NERC organised a consultation event for Hidden Histories of Environmental Science. I successfully applied to be a delegate. Findings and suggestions of delegates shaped the eventual NERC funding call for this project. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | Presentation at Learned Society of Wales Climate Emergency and Social Inequality ECR Conference |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | I presented at this conference, on 'Addressing the Climate CHange and BIodiversity Crises: Beekeepers and power in the Capitalocene'. This conference facilitated my developing working relationships with several new colleagues; we had previously been unaware of each other's work. It also led to my becoming involved in the Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://www.learnedsociety.wales/lsw-event/the-climate-emergency-and-social-inequality-responses-fro... |
| Description | Presented an online lecture at the Hay Festival 2021 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | I was chosen to represent Aberystwyth University and present a lecture based on my research. The lecture is titled The Great Reset: Co-designing an inclusive, sustainable, post-pandemic future. The lecture was pre-recorded, but had a live chat facility during broadcast. Live broadcast audience members were from throughout Europe; they and I engaged in a lively debate about regenerative agriculture, sustainability, different forms of environmental knowledge and sustainability. The lecture is still available via Hay Player. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://www.hayfestival.com/p-17915-siobhan-maderson.aspx?skinid=16 |