Nature recovery. Chair @NaturalEngland. Fellow @CISL_Cambridge. Chair @coolearth. Former @friends_earth @wwf_uk @wildlifetrusts @BirdLife_News. Writer.
Cambridge, UK
Joined September 2009
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Ever wondered what @NaturalEngland does?
I was pleased to record this podcast with the Civil Service Climate & Environment Network, answering questions about our work, why we do it & the context.
open.spotify.com/episode/4Jc…
Excellent to see serious work for species recovery gathering momentum in some countries, including with big cats.
aljazeera.com/video/newsfeed…
Tens of thousand of people have enabled the @WildlifeTrusts to buy the Rothbury Estate. Largest land purchase in a generation brings an area of Northumberland the size of Athens into Nature recovery. Brilliant & bold work that sets a new bar for ambition for Nature in England.
wildlifetrusts.org/news/futu…
An excellent piece from @fionaharvey to mark 20 years since Nick Stern’s seminal report on the economics of climate change. I went to the launch & it felt like a breakthrough moment. It certainly helped the campaign that led to the 2008 Climate Change Act. Much more work to do though.
theguardian.com/commentisfre…
Logan’s Meadow Local Nature Reserve is considerably enhanced with a few small new wetlands added. Cetti’s Warbler, Water Rail & Otter among the notable species in this urban oasis. Scarce Black Poplar trees grow there too. Well done @camcitco for work to have such wildlife in the centre of #Cambridge
Another global Nature summit is underway, this time in Armenia. All countries must work harder to meet agreed targets, including the UK. Are we up for being leaders, or do we think protecting the web of life is too expensive, inconvenient and complicated? naturalengland.blog.gov.uk/2…
Solar power can do a lot for Nature when properly designed. Good to see further momentum in that direction.
With the UK set to almost double its #solar capacity by 2030, new scheme encouraging developers to create habitats for wildlife alongside clean electricity generation. Hares darting between hedgerows. Grasses and wildflowers pushing up between rows of solar panels. Birds wheeling overhead.
positive.news/environment/th…
I wonder to what extent the argument over the reality of human-induced global heating might be an issue that Russia would seek to divide societies & polarise opinion over? There used to be broad consensus, & now there isn’t & that shift didn’t come from nowhere.
There is a lot of Russian propaganda in Europe. They have invested as much money in it as in weapons during this war. This is a massive financial program spanning decades. Russia has been waging a hybrid war against Europe, including Italy, France, Britain, and Germany, for a long time. It just isn't waging a full-scale war against them as it is against us. Because we had the same thing – a hybrid war. Russian narratives across absolutely all television and media platforms, on the internet, and on social media.
People should not be pierced through and brainwashed by waves of narratives from the Russian Federation. Because it is up to France, Ukraine, Italy, and Spain to decide how to live and whom to elect. Russia cannot influence Italy's choices and freedom. Italy is a free country, just like Ukraine.
The Russians will seek to exploit far-right movements, religious movements, faith, migration, and gender. Russia doesn't care what issue can divide society: from religion to language, Russia will always find it and strike there. We are seeing this now not only in Europe – they also have influence in the United States of America. They have a very significant wave going on there, and their network is operating.
From an interview with Corriere della Sera. (3/3)
Wow! Bleached coral can fully recover when in contact with a fragment of healthy coral.
nature.com/articles/d41586-0…
Peregrine soaring around the spire of Leicester Cathedral just now (see it?). What an amazing recovery these birds have made. Comes down to the excellent science undertaken by Britain’s Nature agency back in the 60s & 70s & the ban on DDT which followed. Evidence->action->result.
This is vital work.
🚨 125 illegal mist-nets dismantled in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley!
In a massive sting operation with @LebISF, APU teams dismantled over 14,000m² of nets, rescued 100+ migratory birds, and 11 suspects face criminal charges.
Every net down means thousands more birds fly safe! 🕊️✨
Fantastic work. More of this…
Good news 💚
Work to create an area of wetland almost the size of Hyde Park has got under way.
Diggers are being used on the arable fields of Speechly's Farm at the Great Fen nature reserve, near Ramsey in Cambridgeshire.
About 136 hectares (336 acres) will be restored over the next 12 months with pools, channels and reedbeds created for wildlife.
Lorna Parker, project manager, said: "It's taken a huge amount of work from a lot of people to get to this point so it's amazing to see the diggers finally starting to create the channels which will soon fill with water and create a wetland landscape."
The project is part of the Great Fen vision, which began in 2000, with the Wildlife Trust for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire joining with other agencies to create a new wetland landscape.
The wildlife trust said "millions of megalitres of water" would be brought into the new area, alongside wetland species, including wading birds, water voles, otters, dragonflies and aquatic plants
bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cm20…
Joined colleagues from @duchyofcornwall Cornwall Wildlife Trust & @NaturalEngland to learn about Nature restoration along the Helford River. Temperate rainforest meets a unique marine environment, with sea grasses, native oyster & mangrove-like woody margins among the priorities.
A reminder that ‘circular economy’ is an idea possible to achieve in practice. I remember this very well. Not a plastic bottle in sight, & no diesel needed either…
In 1967 Britain had more electric vehicles on its roads than every other country on earth put together, and they were all delivering milk.
There were tens of thousands of them. The milk float: open sided, battery under the floor, top speed of about 15 miles an hour, and a whine you could pick out in your sleep. It was charged overnight at the depot and was back there by lunchtime.
It carried glass bottles. Each one was collected from your step the next morning, washed and refilled. A bottle went round like that 20 or 30 times before it broke. The foil cap went for scrap. There was no other packaging.
The milk had come from farms within a few miles, through a local dairy, and was on the step before 7.
So here is what the country had. A zero-emission delivery fleet. Reusable containers with a return rate any modern scheme would kill for. No plastic. A supply chain you could cycle the length of. A man who noticed if an old lady's bottles were piling up, and knocked.
It was dismantled in about 15 years, because a supermarket could sell milk a few pence cheaper in a plastic jug as a way of getting you through the door.
Every piece of that system is now the subject of a government target for 2040.
It was running in 1967, silently, in the dark, and nobody thought it was worth a mention.
I was an observer on a boat licensed to participate in England’s catch & release fishery for Bluefin Tuna. It was good to see the application of @NaturalEngland advice in how this world class game fishery is being managed. Sorry about the paywall…
telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/10…
Is it possible to foresee a sustainable future for the North Sea, whereby good jobs, investment, clean power & Nature recovery come together?
Reflections from a recent visit to Lowestoft, where @NaturalEngland is working with partners to help it happen.
naturalengland.blog.gov.uk/2…
Wonderful to see these splendid magnificent birds establishing again in England.
We have special news!
3 white-tailed eagles have fledged from wild nests in Dorset & Sussex this summer.
With 5 pairs now established across England we hope to see further breeding in the coming years as this lost species is restored.
bit.ly/4h83z3D
@RoyDennisWF
England’s newest National Nature Reserve was declared today: Lyscombe Down, Dorset. A spectacular landscape coming back to life. At @NaturalEngland we are very proud to have worked with @DorsetWildlife & various amazing individuals to get this done, for everyone to enjoy forever.
The destruction of a rainforest for economic growth is equivalent to burning a renaissance painting to cook a meal.
You can hear about the great life of E.O. Wilson on BBC Sounds.
bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0031n…
Ten years ago this month I met E.O. Wilson. I’m very pleased we got a photo to commemorate the moment, not least to accompany this episode of @BBC ‘Great Lives’. Broadcast Monday 21st of September at 15.00.
bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0031nw…
