Biodiversity

RCE London is celebrating the 10th year since it was endorsed and admitted to the global RCE network (Regional Centre of Expertise for Education for Sustainable Development ) by the United Nations University Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability (UNU-IAS).

RCE London is marking this milestone year with a webinar series entitled ‘Sustainability and Beyond’ with the emphasis on an eclectic mix of themes around the Sustainable Development Goals.

Each webinar will be presented virtually by a member(s) of RCE London and there will be time for discussion & questions. The series Chair is Ros Wade, Emeritus Professor, LSBU and Chair of RCE London. The series is hosted by London South Bank University (LSBU) and have been curated in co-operation with the LSBU Sustainability Research Group. You will receive the joining instructions 3 days before each webinar takes place.

Biodiversity

Contributors will present examples of projects where citizen science and community involvement have been deployed in the protection and monitoring of biodiversity. This will include local projects and ones with national and international reach, some utilising digital solutions. A facilitated panel discussion will then consider the key issues in developing such approaches in future projects.

Speaker biographies

Neil Herrington, having previously worked as a science teacher and in middle leadership roles in secondary schools for fifteen years, recently retired from the School of Education and Communities at the University of East London. He taught on initial teacher education programmes, and supervised students at Masters and doctoral level. His research interests include sustainability education, place-based learning and learning in informal contexts. He was a member of Natural England’s Strategic Research Group on Learning in the Natural Environment and is a management board member of the London Regional Centre for Expertise in Education for Sustainable Development (part of the UNU network).

Dr Paula Vandergert is a director of the social enterprise EM|Path. Paula’s 30+ years’ experience continually explores what is required to embed environmental and social justice in practice, and what this means in terms of fostering new, sustainable ways of working. She looks at this from a range of broad adaptive governance-related themes, including meaningful inclusion of local people and nature; and the knowledge, skills and collaboration needs required for just urban transformations.

Paula has led action research projects internationally through her work with environment, development and human rights NGOs; at University of East London (UEL) she worked for 10 years with partners across Europe on research and innovation programmes promoting urban nature-based solutions; Paula managed CABE’s (the former UK government advisor on architecture, urban design and public space) Sustainable Cities programme; and she has also worked on DEFRA and NHS England-funded projects and with community groups in East London. She regularly publishes articles and chapters in academic and non-academic publications.

Dr Caroline Nash has had a lifelong fascination with wildlife which led her to study nature conservation and embark on a career as an ecologist. Much of her work has been focused on urban wildlife and explores innovative ways to support biodiversity in cities as a pathway to creating rich and diverse urban environments that can connect with people with nature. Caroline’s PhD research investigated a novel ‘ecomimicry’ design approach that looks to the local natural landscape for inspiration to develop ecologically-attuned urban green infrastructure.

Caroline is a Research Fellow at the University of East London, working primarily on nature-based solutions projects that support cities and a wide range of partners in delivering multifunctional greenspaces which are nature positive. She is also co-director of start-up called Connecting Ecology that will provide clients with the support and tools required for effective biodiversity conservation through nature-based solutions. Outside of work, Caroline has been actively involved in citizen science, contributing data through surveys of bats and birds in her local nature reserve, and helping to engage the public through leading bird and bat walks.

You can check out the full timetable of the webinar series below and sign up for each webinar here.

30 Sept 2021 – Art, Nature and Sustainability

25 Nov 2021 – Story telling, documenting, inspiring

27 Jan 2022 – Biodiversity

10 Feb 2022 – Education for Sustainable Development: past, present and future

24 Feb 2022 – After COP 26, where to next?

You can watch the previous webinars here.