Natural Capital
Chairing Nature events at Book Festivals
Chaired by Dr Hannah Rudman, the 2026 Edinburgh International Book Festival is hosting Birds – Evolution and Extinction on Weds 19th Aug (update: sold out by early July!). Every Jurassic Park fan knows dinosaurs eventually evolved into birds, and in The Story of Birds, leading palaeontologist and film adviser Steve Brusatte recounts that thrilling, 150-million-year journey towards the…
2026 Conference Keynotes
In February, Hannah was the closing keynote presenter at the Resilient Land and Seas 2026 Symposium. Collaborating at scale for nature and people was the theme of the conference held at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Edinburgh. Hannah took a look back at the journey of the Scottish Forum on Natural Capital, and reflected on how…
Nature Finance into Action
As Co-Chair of the Scottish Forum on Natural Capital, Dr Hannah Rudman co-organised the Nature Finance into Action event, which brought together 150 stakeholders from Scotland’s natural capital community: investors, land managers, policymakers, scientists and project developers, to discuss one key goal: turning nature finance from conversation into action. The March event in Edinburgh sold…
Honorary Fellowship
Hannah has been awarded Honorary Fellowship of University of Edinburgh in the School of Geosciences’ Centre for Sustainable Forests and Landscapes. She is leading the UK Nations and International Co-operation theme in the Integrating Finance and Biodiversity programme with UK CEH funded by UKRI’s NERC, and supporting the EU funded CircHive project.
Investing in data for nature-based projects – a case study from Lauriston Farm
My latest video explains why it is useful to invest in data collection to establish baselines, and prove changes through time. The Lauriston Farm team and their investor Federated Hermes Limited discuss how they are collecting data to prove the social, economic and environmental impacts of their regenerative agriculture and community engagement practices. There is a written case…
What a year…
This year in January, I became Co-Director of the Thriving Natural Capital Challenge Centre and Reader at SRUC, and blogged previously about that. 2022 has been an extremely busy and exciting time. I have now been Principle Investigator on 11 projects, successfully receiving almost £600k grants, including an award from Scottish government for Trustable Credit,…
Co-directing for Thriving Natural Capital
In January 2022, I became the Co-director of The Thriving Natural Capital Challenge Centre at SRUC. Our goal is to research and build ecosystem markets to meet net-zero targets and reverse the biodiversity decline. We support thriving rural communities through regenerative agriculture and conservation. Natural capital can be defined as ‘renewable and non-renewable stocks of natural…
Bioregioning Tayside – new podcast
Hannah finds out about bioregioning in a new podcast, and discover how it helps us to see the unique places where we live and work with new eyes, helping us reconnect to and restore the ecological systems of which we are a part and upon which we all depend. We hear about the benefits Bioregioning…
SRUCBytes & Science Festival event launched
When is a farm not a farm? I’m excited to Chair this Edinburgh International Science Festival event, this year online and free! Could a complex digital information system made of hardware and software be the answer to sustainable farming? Join Dominic Gammon of The Aquaponics Garden and Gordy Wills of Intelligent Growth Solutions to explore how…