University of Worcester Pledges Action on Biodiversity Decline

The University of Worcester is one of 117 universities globally to make a pledge to work towards reversing biodiversity decline.

Worcester has signed up to the Nature Positive Universities Alliance, launched by the United Nations’ Environment Programme in partnership with the University of Oxford.

The alliance, launched today, is a global network of 117 universities from 48 countries, who have each made a pledge to work towards the prevention and reverse of nature loss.

Professor David Green CBE DL, Vice Chancellor and Chief Executive of the University of Worcester, said: “We are deeply committed to doing all we can to halt and reverse the decline of biodiversity. Imaginative colleagues have implemented many initiatives across our own campuses which are having a positive impact, from our wildflower meadows, low allergen garden, planting bird food crops and promoting bird watching well-being walks. In signing this pledge, we further commit to working hard on our own land and to working with partners to achieve even greater success.”

The University’s Biodiversity Strategy, which outlines its policies and targets to increase biodiversity across its campuses, is part of the University’s wider commitment to sustainability, which has seen it awarded First Class Honours by the People and Planet University league for more than a decade now.

The Nature Positive Universities Alliance is part of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, a movement to avert climate catastrophe and mass extinction. It brings together universities to use their influence to become drivers of positive change.

Sam Barratt, Chief of Youth, Education and Advocacy at the UN Environment Programme, said: “Universities live at the heart of cities, at the crossroads of students’ futures and provide ground-breaking research that educates and informs society. We are delighted to see universities will be joining hands to reset our relationship with nature so that, through this Alliance, new action and possibilities are created. The virtue of higher education has come from a reappraisal of the present to then steer the world to a new future. We look forward to seeing how the Nature Positive Universities Alliance does just that for this agenda too."