Matti Troiano

Navigating nature recovery landscapes: towards equitable and effective outcomes for planet and people

I am a DPhil student in the Land, Society & Governance Lab in the ECI on the collaborative studentship project funded by the ESRC Grand Union DTP Navigating nature recovery landscapes: towards equitable and effective outcomes for planet and people, in partnership with the conservation policy organisation Oxfordshire Local Nature Partnership (ONLP) and supervised by senior researcher Mark Hirons and co-supervised by senior research fellow Sophus zu Ermgassen. I am also a research assistant on a John Fell funded project looking at national to local disconnects in greenspace policy and green infrastructure through an equity lens in the light of ongoing UK Devolution agenda, with principal investigators Martha Crockatt and Alison Smith (ECI & Leverhulme Centre for Nature Recovery); and an SDG Impact funded project in partnership with Oxford Brooks University, the OLNP, and the Nature Effect CIC, facilitating participatory co-creation of a monitoring and evaluation framework with Oxfordshire organisations connecting people and nature, with Dr Wendee Zhang and Prof. Yadvinder Malhi.

My work aims at broadening the analysis of mainstream conservation initiatives and policies from an environmental and social justice perspective. Through mostly qualitative and participatory research methods, I focus on inequitable social and institutional arrangements emerging as part to the UK's efforts towards nature recovery. While working mostly on a UK-level, my research critically engages with the relevance and applicability to wider global environmental governance questions in biodiversity finance.

I previously worked as research assistant under the Agile Initiative at the Oxford Martin School supporting the core team with programme-level research. More recently, I worked at the ECI and Department of Biology, on a specific one-year research project funded by Agile Initiative (Sprint 11). My work stream unveiled opportunities for and tensions between inclusive and collaborative governance models fostered by different organisations under the recently introduced English biodiversity market (Biodiversity Net Gain).

Previously, during my MPhil project part of the Environmental Change & Management degree at the School of Geography and the Environment, I worked across participatory social science and art-based methods in Oxford. Through the lens of recognitional equity, I explored how community values and relations with institutions across different social-economic groups in Oxford affect their access to green spaces and participation in local governance.

• Troiano, M., zu Ermgassen, S.O.S.E., Duffus, N.E., Hawkins, I., Gall, S., Mascia, R., Whitney, M., Thomas, H. and Hirons, M. (2026) Can Biodiversity Markets Deliver Inclusive and Collaborative Nature Recovery? Lessons From Different Habitat Banking Models in England. Environmental Policy and Governance, 36(3): 727–745.
• Troiano, M., Crockatt, M. and Hirons, M. (2026) How Recognitional Justice (Re)Shapes Access and Participation in Urban Green Space Governance. Landscape and Urban Planning, 273: 105691.
• Troiano, M. et al. (2024) Impact and Collaboration in Environmental Research: Moving universities from evidence producers to co-producers. Discussion Paper. The Agile Initiative. University of Oxford, UK.
• Wright-Arora, G. et al. (2024) The role of publics and deliberation at the environmental science-policy interface. Discussion Paper. The Agile Initiative. University of Oxford, UK.