The Restoration Dialogues series, which brings together leading experts in nature conservation, launched last month with its first dialogue: ‘Restoration, the Arts and Resilience’.
Drawing on interdisciplinary expertise, both within and beyond CCI, the dialogues are designed to encourage collaboration between practitioners, funders, policymakers, and Endangered Landscapes and Seascapes Programme (ELSP) grantees to explore pressing issues in restoration.
The ELSP at CCI launched the dialogue in collaboration with the Arts, Science and Conservation Programme and convened a wide range of artists (including those from ELSP’s Artists Residencies), conservation scientists and policymakers from institutions such as Natural England, the Royal College of Art and Agence Française de Développement.
Over two days the group presented and discussed case studies of community and place-based practice. This was followed by sessions on evaluation and how to mainstream the arts into conservation at project, programme and institutional level as well as discussions on the value of evolving hybrid or blended approaches to working for individual practitioners.
The meeting generated a hugely constructive and febrile space for debate, and plans are being developed to continue to explore the evolution of more hybrid approaches to arts science research and practice, and growing the range and scope of community and place-based examples.
The second dialogue – ‘Exploring Rights-Based Approaches for Restoration’ – was led by Fauna & Flora in early December and focused on how rights-based approaches can influence the design and delivery of restoration. While the Global Biodiversity Framework recognises the rights of Indigenous Peoples and local communities in conservation, it does not explicitly include rights within Target 2 on restoration. This gap raises concerns that rights could be overlooked in implementation.
The dialogue brought together diverse perspectives from law, ecology, philosophy, and practice to examine how respecting both human rights and the rights of nature can improve restoration outcomes, support social equity, and encourage more inclusive approaches.
Momentum from the success of the first two dialogues will carry on into the first quarter of 2026, with further dialogues exploring the link between restoration and human wellbeing; rethinking the carbon footprint of woodland recovery; and the practical value of geospatial foundation models for restoration. We will be sharing more on the outcomes of the dialogues in 2026.
