Job Share: Embedding environmental and geospatial science in nature recovery and rewilding

Nature recovery projects that enable and support nature-driven processes and promote wilder nature for the benefit of people and wildlife are central to addressing the global environmental challenges of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution. Large-scale and radical approaches such as landscape rewilding are rapidly gaining popularity. In addition to delivering dramatic biodiversity gains, rewilding can offer potential for carbon storage and water regulation (e.g. flood and drought mitigation), and possibly some risks, but these changes are not being captured in a comprehensive and standardised way. Science-led monitoring and appropriate use of metrics to capture rewilding-driven change is essential to support improved understanding of landscape change, enable landowners to access investment through emerging nature finance initiatives (e.g., carbon credits and biodiversity credits) and transform policy to centralise nature for the benefit of nature and society.

The applicants currently work in collaboration with pioneering rewilding sites, environmental charities and best practice organisations, government agencies, local authorities, nature recovery groups, residents and community groups to develop new insights into rewilding approaches and outcomes. We have established major knowledge gaps and infrastructure limitations that are preventing evaluation of the hydrological outcomes of rewilding. Expanding monitoring infrastructure to quantify the contribution of nature recovery to water regulating ecosystem services (e.g. flood and drought mitigation) and any risks is therefore an urgent priority. We have also established that existing data sets for quantifying vegetation change at rewilding sites are insufficient and landowners urgently require decision-support to effectively quantify vegetation change and create access to emerging financial markets in biodiversity and carbon credits. Rewilding momentum is growing rapidly and protocols for ensuring change is captured in a standardised way are being developed, including Rewilding Britain's Rewilding Monitoring Protocol. Now is the critical time to ensure that core environmental processes are embedded within metrics and monitoring practices, and that data acquisition services and data sharing and processing mechanisms are in place to support the capture of essential data for evaluation metrics.

Specifically, we will:

Identify and engage with a wide range of stakeholders to bring diverse perspectives on rewilding monitoring and evaluation needs. This will range from individual landowners and project managers to networks of sites, supporting and advisory organisations including Rewilding Britain, and government agencies with monitoring infrastructure responsibilities.

Raise awareness of the benefits and risks of rewilding and nature recovery for water regulation (e.g. floods and droughts) and use knowledge exchange to drive an increase in hydrological monitoring across national programmes and individual projects and networks.

Provide signposting and decision-support tools to enable rewilding projects to capture vegetation change and access emerging nature finance initiatives including carbon credits and biodiversity credits through application of remote sensing technologies.

Embed the environmental processes that underpin key ecosystem services (carbon storage, water regulation) into a national monitoring protocol to capture change across all rewilding sites in a standardised way and establish innovative options for funding monitoring and sharing data to support the evaluation of projects and leverage investment in nature recovery.