Your support is highlighting crucial environmental and biodiversity initiatives.
Combating nature's decline is an urgent and complex task. Ecosystem degradation threatens the well-being of people around the globe and all other species with with we share our planet. The Centre of Conservation and Restoration Science was established in 2022 in response to these challenges. Working at a global and local level, CCRS supports initiatives such as the UN's Decade on Ecosystem Restoration and the Edinburgh Declaration 2020 which is reinforcing Scotland's ambition to act against biodiversity loss.
'This impactful project provides us with an opportunity to reset and reframe how we think about, and manage, biodiversity.'
'Mind the Gap' is an innovative study assessing the environmental importance of brownfield sites, building understanding of their unique biodiversity value. Scientists from our Centre for Conservation and Restoration have partnered with National Highways and Balfour Beatty to deliver this groundbreaking project. Using specialist sound surveys and site eDNA testing alongside more traditional techniques, the research will provide cutting-edge assessment of five Historic Railway Estate brownfield sites in Scotland. The project is also co-developing a school outreach programme aligned with the National 5 curriculum.
Community-led Conservation
Edinburgh Napier is the lead partner in Nnaa Saama Mankolou (Mangroves for Our Future), a community-led mangrove conservation and restoration project in The Gambia, one of the most vulnerable countries to the impacts of climate change. The project has investigated multiple methods for mangrove restoration, including active planting and the exploration of assisted natural regeneration methods, with the aim of halting deforestation and mitigating desertification across the Sahel.
Nnaa Saama Mankolou builds on the success of the ambitious Vanga Blue Forest mangrove conservation project in Kenya, led by Edinburgh Napier, which enabled the protection of 460 hectares of mangroves and the creation of community development projects supporting the livelihoods of nearly 9,000 people.