Each year the RENEW community, including all researchers, partners, and support staff, come together to connect in person, reflect on progress and challenges, and explore new opportunities on the horizon. Moving around the country each year, the Parliament celebrates people and place, shares progress and learnings, and encourages participatory processes to find common ground across diverse disciplines and sectors.
Watch the film from our first event in 2022 and read summaries of past events linked below.
Access and share the Biodiversity Parliament 2022 film produced by Foreground films using this link.
London Wetland Centre | WWT London, Queen Elizabeth Walk, Barnes, London, SW13 9WT
This event is invitation only and we have limited capacity, if you have not received an invite but would like to be added to the waiting list please e-mail renew@exeter.ac.uk
Please e-mail renew@exeter.ac.uk if you have any queries about this year’s event
At this year’s event we will be inviting our RENEW community to contribute directly to our collective understanding of the diverse aspirations and visions for the future of biodiversity renewal. We’re offering a unique opportunity to participate in research being led by our ExCASES ‘mission’ team, discussing together areas of agreement and disagreement around biodiversity renewal, and working collaboratively towards a shared understanding which we hope will encourage better and fairer land management, and greater efficacy of biodiversity renewal efforts in the UK.
Ahead of the Parliament, the ExCASES team will ask all attendees to complete an online survey that aims to capture the diverse perspectives on biodiversity renewal within the RENEW community.
The London Wetland Centre will be hosting us at their site close to central London, on the banks of the River Thames in Barnes. The Parliament will hear from a range of ‘provocateurs’ and take part in a series of participatory workshop activities that draw on the survey responses and explore our wide-ranging perspectives and aspirations. By the end of the event, we aim to better identify what is required to achieve more equitable, collaborative, and effective biodiversity renewal practices, strategies, and policies.
National Trust Headquarters, Heelis, Swindon
Notes from RENEW: An update on activities from across the team
Our second Parliament moved from University of Exeter to National Trust headquarters, with the RENEW research teams delivering a lively set of research updates and interactive workshops with partners, in contrast with the murky November weather outside. Jade’s Green Kitchen, formerly Head chef at the World’s only vegan football club, Forest Green Rovers, kept everyone physically fed whilst a thread of poetry throughout the event satiated creative and collaborative hunger.
Reed Hall, University of Exeter, Exeter
Deliberative democracy brings the RENEW partnership to life
Our inaugural Biodiversity Parliament – the launch event for RENEW – took place on 18-19 October and brought together the RENEW team and representatives of over 20 partner organisations to workshop pressing questions around people, nature, and biodiversity renewal. Inspired by the Select Committees of Westminster, provocations on the themes of ‘No Access without Impact?’ and ‘What Cost Food Security?’ were shared and debated, prompting us to think collectively and ambitiously about how to make a people-in-nature approach to biodiversity renewal a success.
For more information about the 2022 parliament, read our event summary, find out about our inspired, low-waste event dinner, and get a flavor of the impromptu poetry performance that delighted delegates during the event close.
