We are pleased to announce the launch of a brand new studentship, as part of the E3 Sharing Space for Nature initiative.
The scholarship, titled ‘Understanding and optimising local nature recovery networks in England’, includes an annual stipend (equivalent to the Research Councils UK National Minimum Doctoral Stipend) and a £10,000 research and training fund.
The UK Government has set ambitious biodiversity and nature recovery targets to meet national and international conservation commitments. A key element of achieving these targets in England is the implementation of Local Nature Recovery Strategies (LNRS). Each county is currently developing their own LNRS based on nationally developed guidelines, working with a wide range of local stakeholders to produce a list of biodiversity priorities and map the most suitable locations for conservation, restoration and habitat creation. These outputs will likely play a major role in county-level spatial planning. However, their success also depends on the extent to which these LNRSs combine to form regional networks, and how they contribute to, or clash with, national targets for biodiversity, tree-planting, food security and infrastructure.
Systematic conservation planning is the most widely used approach for developing conservation area and nature recovery networks. It is ideally suited for assessing the effectiveness of LNRSs in meeting regional and national targets and understanding the trade-offs between different land-uses. This project will use systematic conservation planning to focus on the nine counties in South East England to explore questions such as:
- How and why do the LNRS methodologies, biodiversity priorities and spatial outputs differ between counties?
- To what extent does each county’s LNRS combine to produce a viable, ecologically representative and connected network for the South East?
- How should national biodiversity, climate change, food security and infrastructure targets be devolved to the regional and county-level?
- How feasible is it to meet all these targets in South East England and what are the best options for making trade-offs?
The student will develop spatial databases using ArcGIS/QGIS, work with Natural England, Nature South East and other partners to collect biodiversity and socio-economic data, and run systematic conservation planning analyses using Marxan with Zones, CLUZ and prioritizr. They will also learn academic skills such as academic writing, analysing data in R, giving conference presentations and time management.
Read more about the scholarship and how to apply on the scholarship listing page.