There is an unquestionable link between environmental degradation and business. Understanding how business activities relate to environmental problems such as biodiversity loss and climate change is crucial to the innovative development of sustainable environmental solutions. Gaining such understanding is not easy.

WildCRU is in a uniquely strong scientific position to address issues of business impacts on biodiversity and ecological processes. Since the relatively recent corporate interest in addressing biodiversity impacts, WildCRU has been working with committed parties within and outside of industry to develop and promote positive connections to wildlife conservation and understanding.

 

What are we doing?

Research
BP Scholarship

Policy seminars
Series of occasional, guest lectures on Policy & Decision for the Environment. Previous speakers have included the Rt Hon William Hague MP, Leader of the Conservative Party, and Michael Meacher MP, Minister for Environment.

Jerwood Lunches
The purpose of the lunches is to bring leading thinkers in the business and biodiversity arenas together, to stimulate debate, to seek solutions to the problem of how to best manage biodiversity and generally to raise awareness of the issues among all participants in the process.

Several informal and invitation only lunches are arranged each year and held at the Oxford college, Lady Margaret Hall. Invitees come from diverse backgrounds for some stirring discussions around the table. A high profile keynote speaker provides the direction of the discussion - but otherwise this is a forum for establishing contacts and exchanging ideas, which it does according to the Chatham House rule.

 

Business and Biodiversity Courses & Seminars
Deeper debate and discussion will be key in the one and a half day courses and seminars. These will follow an agenda of issues, and will provide a series of senior presenters on the various topics. Again, a diverse set of participants are expected to be present - an asset which will prevail in the different sessions of the course.

Course topics include:

Courses will typically involve seminars given by Professor David Macdonald (WildCRU Director and Fellow, Lady Margaret Hall), Dr Dieter Helm (Oxford Economic Research Associates and Fellow, New College) and Dr Michael Packer (BiodiversityWorks and Lecturer, Pembroke College).

Funding

The Jerwood Charitable Foundation is a UK registered charity dedicated to imaginative and responsible funding of the arts, education and other areas of human endeavour and excellence. The Charitable Foundation has funded WildCRU since 1999, through the Jerwood Business and Biodiversity Initiative, in support of the Biodiversity and Business lunches and training courses. In addition, the Charitable Foundation supports the Jerwood Painting Prize, the Jerwood Applied Arts Prize and the Choreography Awards. The Charitable Foundation also has the benefit of association with the capital projects of its parent foundation, principally the Jerwood Space in London, the Jerwood Gallery at the National History Museum, the Jerwood Theatres at the Royal Court and the Jerwood Sculpture Park at Witley Court, Worcestershire.

The BP Business and Biodiversity Scholarship has been sponsored since 1999. The purpose of the scholarship is to investigate business roles in sustainable stewardship of biodiversity, with a preliminary focus on BP's global activities.