Hoping you've all booked transport to Scotland and not Bavaria! 🙈

Unfortunately, we can't promise snow. Fortunately, we can promise science.

➡️ Collaboration between science, policy, and practice is essential if we are to achieve meaningful ecological recovery. We hope to engage with Defra on the work that needs to be done to deliver on the new EIP.

Looking ahead to 2026, BES will deepen policy engagement on:
🏠The Government’s Planning and Infrastructure Bill
🏞️Nature-based solutions and water
💰The role of finance in biodiversity recovery

At the British Ecological Society, we continue to champion the role of ecological expertise at the science–policy interface. Mapping progress and monitoring outcomes must be grounded in expertise from the outset.

The real test for the Westminster Government will be whether EIP strategies are evidence-based and sufficiently resourced to deliver nature recovery on the ground in a changing climate.

But we have a long way to go. UK Biodiversity Indicators, released today, show that many species indicators are declining in the long term, and of these, none are showing improvements in the short term, suggesting that we’re yet to reverse the negative trend in the state of UK nature.

The EIP outlines a mix of new and existing policies, targets, and commitments to achieve this, including landscape-scale recovery, ecological connectivity, and agri-environment schemes as central pillars.

www.gov.uk/government/p...

Register here 👇

This zoom session is open to all, especially for those who are keen to practice their poster talks or presentations before the BES Annual Meeting in Edinburgh. 

Also, if you are just keen to see some of the work that will be presented, come along to our coffee morning for previews and chats.

At the BES, we believe cost should not be a barrier to publishing. We have outlined how you can use resources like funding, waivers and agreements – including our own BES waivers – that cover the fees for processing and publishing your research.  

Find out more here👇 

📣Applications are now open!

Find out more about how to apply 👇

2. Rewilding Group PhD Networking
📅 27 November 10:00-11:00 (GMT)

An online speed talk series for PhD students to share exciting updates and connect with fellow rewilding researchers across the BES. 

Register -

Ecological Engineers & Delivering Integrated Catchment Planning 
📅 27 November 11:00-12:00 (GMT)

A webinar on Nature-based Solutions (NbS) in ecological engineering, specifically in the water industry. There will be a Q&A session. Register -

Now, ecologists can use the artificial intelligence model to estimate the age of mandrills. 

📃Renoult, J. P., et al. (2025). Vision transformers for age prediction from facial images in a wild primate. Methods in Ecology and Evolution, 00, 1–15. doi.org/10.1111/2041-210X.70187

Accurate estimation of individual ages of wild animals is crucial for studies in ecology, behaviour and conservation. Yet, when birth dates are a mystery, traditional methods often involve invasive procedures or complex analyses.