University of Exeter Nature Positive Pledge
The University of Exeter took a pledge to become a Nature Positive University in 2022. You can read about this here.
This means that we aim to promote nature in all aspects of our activities – from research and teaching to our beautiful campuses and impacts of our supply chain.
Baseline
The University of Exeter has been collecting baseline data on nature on its campuses in Exeter (Streatham and St Luke’s) and Cornwall (Penryn Campus).
The number of biodiversity units (following Defra’s biodiversity net gain calculations) have been recorded for campuses at Streatham (2021), St Luke’s (2021), Penryn (2019) and Duryard (2023).
Figure: Biodiversity habitat units across University of Exeter Campuses. Note that these are total biodiversity units rather than per unit area, so bigger campuses tend to have more.
Bird surveys have been carried out on Streatham and St Luke’s campuses since 2008, with 37 species recorded on Streatham in the 2022 spring/summer survey (more details here).
A UK butterfly monitoring scheme transect (https://ukbms.org/) has been set up on the Penryn campus by the FXPlus team and recorded 545 individuals from 14 species over the summer.
Targets
While nature positive improvements are happening on both campuses, the University is currently developing a Nature Positive Strategy which will incorporate SMART targets for increasing the positive impacts of the University on nature and reducing the negative impacts.
Actions
The key next step is finalising the University of Exeter Nature Positive Strategy. Current actions for biodiversity are outlined in the Campus Biodiversity Strategy, along with the work done by the Grounds teams in Exeter and Penryn. Work in both Exeter and Penryn has included wildflower meadows to provide pollen and nectar for pollinators, as well as homes for other insects and beautiful visual displays. Penryn campus achieved a silver certificate in the Hedgehog Friendly Campus Program and were rewarded with some recent hedgehog sightings. As well as practical actions such as tree planting, bug hotels and removing invasive species, both Exeter and Penryn teams have been running events to engage people with nature including bioblitzes, tree seed collection and practical management sessions with volunteers.
