Derbyshire Wildlife Trust was delighted to participate in the Nature Returns* conference at Kew earlier this month.  With Tony Juniper, Chair of Natural England, delivering the keynote, the conference brought together over 120 policymakers, practitioners and scientists from across the country to hear about the programme’s emerging discoveries. 

The Nature Returns programme is led by Natural England, in partnership with the Environment Agency, Forestry Commission and Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, Wakehurst. The programme is co-sponsored by Defra and the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) and is funded through the HM Treasury’s Shared Outcomes Fund and Defra’s Net Zero Fund. 

Derbyshire Wildlife Trust has played a significant role in the Nature Returns project. Through Derwent Living Forest , we are creating new wetland and woodland habitat across the River Derwent catchment. This is connecting existing forests to create a new north-south nature corridor, enabling species to migrate in response to climate change.   

Creating and improving this woodland and wetland habitat at a landscape-scale will deliver benefits at scale for natural flood management and carbon capture, making communities more resilient to climate change and contributing to Net Zero. 

Matt Buckler, Executive Director of Strategy and Innovation, lead for Nature Returns at Derbyshire Wildlife Trust said: 

“I was delighted to join the panel at the Nature Returns conference to share our programme work and hear other’s research findings. From learning about the latest discoveries about carbon in soils, woodlands and hedgerows, to discussing the benefits of nature-based solutions and how we can unlock green finance.   

“Scientists from Natural England and Kew demonstrated their technology and innovation, and it really brought home the benefits of collaboration of both the public and third sectors. Having the opportunity to share knowledge and tap into the huge diversity of skills and experience across our partner projects as well as build relationships within the sector is a key part of the process and paves the way to speeding up and scaling up our approach to climate change and biodiversity loss at all levels.” 

Hear the top insights from the conference from Tony Juniper at the Nature Returns conference: 

For more information on Nature Returns visit: 

Nature Returns | Kew 

*Nature Returns seeks to research and test nature-based solutions to climate change and biodiversity loss at landscape scale. The flagship £17.5m programme is a HM Treasury funded collaboration led by Natural England with the Environment Agency, RBG Kew, Forestry Commission and a range of local partners including councils and environmental NGOs. Nature Returns is learning by doing, bringing together science, land management, green finance and community engagement to gather evidence and to help policymakers and investors make better decisions going forward.