WENP Conference 2020

Join us for the West of England Nature Partnership 2020 Conference, which will be held online from 14.00 – 17.00 on Thursday 8th October 2020.

The theme of this year’s Conference will be accelerating nature’s recovery in the West of England. Last year we introduced a Nature Recovery Network (NRN) for the West of England – a joined up network of marine and terrestrial habitats where nature and people can thrive – and, since then, the need to restore nature has become even more pressing, as recognised by the declarations of ecological emergencies by two of the local authorities in the West of England.

Much work has been done since the publication of the NRN, but there remains much more to do. To bring the vision for a Nature Recovery Network to life, we need to mobilise regional and local government, landowners and farmers, businesses, communities, NGOs and individuals across the region to create the bigger, better, more and joined-up habitats needed for a resilient ecological network across the region. The conference will explore how we can do this and accelerate nature’s recovery in the West of England.

The draft programme for the day is as follows (timings and speakers may change):

14:05: Welcome from the Selena Gray, WENP Chair

14:10: Keynote speech from Benedict Macdonald
Author of Rebirding: Restoring Britain’s Wildlife; Winner of the 2020 Wainwright Prize for Writing on Global Conservation; and producer in wildlife television

14:30: WENP Overview
Brief overview of the WENP’s work over the past year

14:40: Delivering for nature’s recovery
Presentations on projects in the West of England that are delivering nature’s recovery:

• Bathscape – Andrew Grant, Chair of Bath Landscape Partnership
• River Frome Reconnected – Liz Kinsey, River Frome Reconnected Project Officer
• A vision for North Somerset Levels and Moors – Amy Coulthard, Director of Nature Recovery, Avon Wildlife Trust
• Bristol Ecological Emergency Strategy – Savita Willmott, Natural History Consortium

15:10: Break

15:25: Engaging people with nature’s recovery
Four interactive sessions on the theme of engaging people with nature’s recovery, led by experts in the field:

• Engaging communities in nature’s recovery – Ben Barker, My Wild South Bristol and BS3 Wildlife Group
• Engaging all in nature’s recovery – Manu Maunganidze, Nature Youth Connection & Education
• Engaging business in nature – Claire Jacobs, Bristol Green Capital Partnership
• The human journey of nature’s recovery – Emily Malik, EcoWild

16:10: Accelerating nature recovery panel Q&A

• Chair – Rachel Williams, Manager, Natural England Wessex Team
• Featuring Ian Barrett, Chief Executive of Avon Wildlife Trust; Councillor Jess David, Bath and North East Somerset member advocate for biodiversity; Guy Thompson, Managing Director of EnTrade and Group Director of Environmental Futures at Wessex Water; and Paul Cottington,  South West Environment Advisor, National Farmers’ Union.

16:50: Wrap up and close

We will also be looking to hold a virtual expo of more projects in the West of England delivering nature’s and people’s recovery. We look forward to welcoming you for an exciting afternoon on the 8th October!