Delivering Nature Recovery: Realising the Potential of the Social Sciences
Published on 12 November 2026
Delivering Nature Recovery: Realising the Potential of the Social Sciences is a new report from ACCESS. The report demonstrates that nature recovery is as much a social, institutional and political challenge as an ecological and technical one, and makes practical recommendations to realise the potential of the social sciences to support more effective and durable nature recovery at the pace and scale required.
The two-year ACCESS Nature Recovery Task Force brought together academic researchers and policy-facing social science evidence specialists with expertise in nature recovery, environmental social science, policy and evidence use.
Their work was guided by two broad aims:
• To understand how evidence, expertise and approaches from the social sciences are currently drawn upon in nature recovery policy development and implementation
• To identify opportunities for the social sciences to be used more effectively in nature recovery policy and practice
Drawing on six case studies, their final report finds that, while the social sciences are widely recognised as relevant to nature recovery (with clear examples of good practice), their potential is rarely fully realised.
The report identifies five connected priority areas for action through which effective social science contribution could become earlier, broader, more consistent and more sustained within the nature recovery evidence-policy-practice system.
The Nature Recovery Task Force was led by Professor Michael Winter OBE (University of Exeter).
For more information on the Task Force, please contact: Prof. Michael Winter – d.m.winter@exeter.ac.uk