RENEW Biodiversity

The RENEW team comprises of over 70 researchers and support staff from the University of Exeter and the National Trust, from across natural and social sciences, arts and humanities disciplines. We are working together to tackle challenges around biodiversity renewal from an interdisciplinary and whole-systems perspective. ‘Renewing biodiversity through a people-in-nature approach’ (RENEW) is a five-year partnership programme to develop solutions to one of the major environmental challenges for humankind: the renewal of biodiversity. We are in a biodiversity crisis. A million species of plants and animals are threatened with global extinction, and wildlife populations across much of the planet have been dramatically reduced. The UK is also one of the world’s most nature-depleted countries, with 40% of monitored species having declined in abundance in recent decades. We rely on the biodiversity of the planet’s ecosystem to provide oxygen, pollination of plants, food and much more, making this a crucial time to act. Funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), RENEW is a collaboration between the University of Exeter and the National Trust and has been co-designed and developed with over 30 partners from a diverse range of sectors. The next five to ten years are critical for making the step change needed to tackle the nature crisis and to alter the current trajectory of biodiversity loss.