This project assesses how specific land uses and management activities affect biodiversity and ecosystem services to inform land use policy.

This is project identifies and evaluates interventions and approaches which facilitate transformative change in how Scottish biodiversity is framed, valued, and managed. It also explores how the benefits of Scotland's biodiversity can be harnessed and more equitably distributed.

This project combines large-scale citizen science through a new Rural Exchange, secondary data analysis, in-depth qualitative work with stakeholders and rural and island communities, policy reviews, and international learning. The project provides recommendations for new and re-designed policy interventions to ensure sustainable, inclusive and just futures for rural and island communities. 

This project explores the relationship between carbon storage, biodiversity conservation and flood mitigation in upland habitats to detect synergies and trade-offs and identifies land management practices that optimise the benefits to be gained. It is generating evidence to inform land-use management practices in the Scottish uplands that contributes to tackling the twin challenges of biodiversity loss and the climate emergency.