Roots and Rhythms is a collaborative project involving J Rixon Ltd, the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, University of Derby, Ruleo & Partners, Get Lost Studio, Heather Knight Creative and others. It aims to address pressing challenges, including the UK's poor rankings in protecting nature, low nature connectedness and access, and declining biodiversity.
Farmers and land managers, managing 71% of UK land, play a vital role in making land-use decisions that positively impact biodiversity, local communities, and access to nature, while safeguarding the asset value of natural capital services and helping the UK meet its commitment to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050\.
The project will work with Lopemede Farm near Thame, on the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire border, as a live case study. The main objectives are to use people-centred and planet-centred approaches to design a decision-making process for farmers and land managers that considers all stakeholders, including nature, community and business, to support behaviour change towards net-zero, nature-positive, and nature-connected land-use.
Roots and Rhythms will provide Lopemede Farm with a locally-appropriate vision, governance structure, recommendations, and management plan that includes nature as a stakeholder in its future. It will also create a quick-start guide for other farmers and land managers, offering options, activities and considerations to make landscape decisions specific to their locations and communities.
Through its innovative methods which will prioritise long-term thinking, collective imagination and nature connection experiences, the project will design a process that can be scaled and adapted for wider use, empowering farmers and landowners across the UK to contribute significantly to nature recovery and health and wellbeing, whilst achieving net-zero goals.