Nature-based solutions in the UK land system: Highlands Rewilding Ltd. and associated research 

Calum Brown, Senior Researcher at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and Co-Chief Scientist at Highlands Rewilding
Wednesday 2nd November 2022 

Who this might appeal to: The presentation will be of interest to people working on ecological restoration, biodiversity monitoring and modelling, carbon dynamics and social aspects of land use change. Topics include land management that aims to improve climate, biodiversity and socio-economic outcomes (including land inequality), and land system modelling to assess the broader scope for such management. 

Abstract: The British land system is under increasing pressure to provide food and energy security, climate change mitigation, biodiversity recovery and socio-economic benefits. Rapidly-developing markets in carbon and biodiversity credits risk exacerbating conflicts between these objectives without necessarily providing robust ‘nature-based solutions’. I will discuss the potential for new forms of land management to provide these solutions, using results from a model of the UK land system and the example of Highlands Rewilding Ltd., a company attempting to develop rewilding as a beneficial and profitable use of land in Scotland. I will focus on attempts to establish co-benefits for climate, biodiversity and people, how these can be generated and verified, and how policy might engage with them. I will also outline the research objectives of Highlands Rewilding and scope for collaboration in environmental and social sciences. 

Bio: Calum Brown is a senior researcher in the Land Use Change & Climate Research Group at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, and co-chief scientist at Highlands Rewilding Ltd. His academic background is in land system modelling and ecology, and he focuses on social-ecological dynamics associated with land use change, specialising in agent-based modelling. At Highlands Rewilding, he is developing research to establish the impacts of rewilding on carbon sequestration, biodiversity and socio-economic conditions through collaborations with external partners, surveys and modelling.