Thread by @BDavisBriz

Looking forward to tearing more about @WildlifeTrusts's 2030 Strategy, and the challenges & opportunities that they face in achieving their goals #NatureSeries

https://twitter.com/BiodivOxford/status/1620406680273010688

.@KathrynABrown opens her presentation by giving a potted history of The Wildwlife Trusts, going back to their foundation in 1916, through to present day as the UKs 7th largest landholder with 2,300 nature reserves with over 3k staff, 37k volunteers & 900k members #NatureSeries

Brown moves on to announcing the 2030 Strategy - which not only continues to move forward on its founding goals of preserving nature, but also reversing the trend of biodiversity loss, with an increased focus on nature-based solutions to help reverse & decline #NatureSeries

Brown says there is also a new focus on community engagement - empowering people to take "meaningful action" to reverse nature decline both within their local communities as well as #SocialPrescribing to help with social connections & mental health #NatureSeries

On nature-based solutions, Brown says that it is about ensuring nature "is used to address local & global problems", which not only includes habitat loss & climate change, but also wider societal & human health issues #NatureSeries

Looking at 2022's impact report, Brown gives case studies on the work TWT is doing on nature-based solutions, including nearly £2.2m invested in 159 natural flood management activities. Brown says she is keen to be testbeds for areas where Govt policy is "lacking" #NatureSeries

Turning to recent examples, Brown discusses the Aviva Rainforest Programme - which TWT believe is funded by the largest private donation for a nature-based solution in the UK, aimed at restoring UK's rainforests, turning them into publicly accessible nature reserves #NatureSeries

Turning to community-led adaptation, Brown highlights an example from #Somerset that is empowering residents to decide for themselves the types of nature-based interventions (e.g. Sustainable Drainage Solutions) they can implement to help adapt to a changing climate #NatureSeries

Brown also gives an example of natural flood solutions from #Sheffield, where a series of floodwater ponds & water pathways have been created for places for water to go, removing flood risks & creating a "photo trail" for tourists to capture the changing landscape #NatureSeries

Turning to challenges & barriers to nature-based solution, Brown says that the main challenges revolve around gathering the right evidence & how this is translated into practical actions #NatureSeries

In particular, Brown says it is important for The Wildlife Trusts to ensure all of its Trusts are collecting data in a robust and uniform way and making the best use of the data that it is collected #NatureSeries

Brown goes through the findings of the WT's "Evidence Emergency Project", which shows strength of feeling as to whether TWT was evidence led. Also identified barriers to evidence incl. lack of opportunities to share best practise & academic research behind paywalls #NatureSeries

Next, Brown moves on to how this evidence is translated in to practical action. Brown goes through the reports published by TWT which set out their objectives in various areas, including nature-based solutions #NatureSeries

First, Brown describes the mapping of data and how TWT put together a risk register, which helped the different trusts to prioritise their local issues against the national objectives, depending on differing regional circumstances #NatureSeries

Part of these challenges, Brown explains, come from the fact that TWT doesn't have a lot of realtime data from events such as heatwaves & depending on volunteers to collect research means it can be inconsistent in terms of what is collected & when #NatureSeries

Part of these challenges, Brown explains, come from the fact that TWT doesn't have a lot of realtime data from events such as heatwaves & depending on volunteers to collect research means it can be inconsistent in terms of what is collected & when #NatureSeries

Ideally, Brown wold want to measure condition of non-protected areas (marine/freshwater & terrestrial), areas of habitats under active restoration, connectivity, people taking meaningful action for nature & urban biodiversity #NatureSeries

On human action, Brown says data shows that 1 in 4 people will engage in "nature positive" actions such as gardening or feeding the birds, but little robust data exists on whether those actions have meaningful positive impacts #NatureSeries

Finally, on "tunnel vision", Brown says there are three main areas that nature-based conditions can have a positive impact - climate, nature & people. However, Brown expresses concerns that siloed thinking can only address 1 segment, leading to "perverse incentives" #NatureSeries

The webinar now moves on to a Q&A session #NatureSeries

On the rainforest project, Brown welcomes the partnership with Aviva. Notes that, as an insurance company, they are often "more switched in" to the benefits of nature-based solution, as they understand the risks & wish to play a role in mitigating them #NatureSeries

On the challenge of aligning priorities with available funding pots, Brown admits that it can be challenging. Gives example of flood management, where funding from Govt is just for the interventions, but TWT will measure biodiversity gains "as a matter of course" #NatureSeries

On how they acquire new land, Brown discusses the philanthropic loan scheme, which allows high-worth individuals to loan money to the trust to pay for land, but giving their fundraising team sufficient time to raise money to pay back the loan #NatureSeries

Really interesting presentation on the work of The Wildlife Trusts & the challenges & opportunities of #NatureBasedSolutions. Thanks to @KathrynABrown for your insights, to @ymalhi for chairing & @NatureRecovery/@BiodivOxford for hosting! #NatureSeries

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