On 5th March, the School of Geography and the Environment became an international hub for decolonizing conservation, by hosting the panel 'The Future of Conservation: COP26 and Beyond'. Born out of #DecoloniseConservation, an engagement campaign from XR Youth Solidarity, the panel was a call to action to begin building solidarity ties between Indigenous and local community leaders and academics, in order to bring a united front to COP26 and seek protections for the rights of over 1.65 billion Indigenous peoples, local communities and Afro-descendants in high biodiversity areas.

Research has shed new light on the impact of humans on Earth's biodiversity. The findings suggest that the rate of change in an ecosystem's plant-life increases significantly during the years following human settlement, with the most dramatic changes occurring in locations colonized in the last 1500 years.

Dr Louise Slater has been awarded the Gill Memorial Award for outstanding early career research in physical geography in the 2021 Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) honours.

Dr Sneha Krishnan has been awarded a British Academy / Wolfson Fellowship, which she will hold from January 2022 to December 2024.

Pastoralists from Asia and Africa led a unique international discussion on April 19, 2021. This inspiring event brought together pastoralists from Kyrgyzstan, Kenya, Mongolia and Tanzania to talk about their lives, herding and the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. The 'Covid-19 and Pastoralists - International Virtual Forum' was the first effort to foster pastoral debate and engagement across continents, and was organised by Drs Troy Sternberg and Ariell Ahearn.

Evolution of multiple species from a single colonizer is something that has happened repeatedly on oceanic islands. Such radiations, can lead to tens or even hundreds of distinct species, often occupying a range of very different habitats with the expectation that these 'evolutionary winners' will be species so well-tuned to their island environments that they should also be locally successful and abundant. In a new study in Journal of Biogeography, an international team including Prof Rob Whittaker, has shown that it may not be so simple.

With Brexit, British fishing grew from a tool of the political class to a determinant of constitutional and political affairs, suggests a new interdisciplinary paper by Aadil Siddiqi, current MSc in Biodiversity, Conservation and Management student.

Vance Tan Zong Hao, a Bruneian doctoral student at the School of Geography and the Environment, was awarded the prestigious Impact Award from Oxford University Student Union (Oxford SU) on 20th June.

Pete is our Systems and Support Officer. He provides technical support and assistance as part of the School's IT team.

Emmanuel Opoku, a masters student at the School of Geography and the Environment, has been awarded a £1,000 grant from the Vice Chancellor's COVID-19 African Innovation Seed Fund for entrepreneurial projects aimed at addressing global challenges stemming from the pandemic.