New Forest Biodiversity Conference - 2025 review and 2026 call for speakers

2025 review

The second edition of the New Forest Biodiversity Conference took place on 04-05 March 2025 at Careys Manor Hotel in Brockenhurst. We once again had a full house of 100 attendees for both days, and a packed schedule of talks, workshops, and networking opportunities.

On day one, after an update on NFBF activities from the Chair, we welcomed our first keynote speaker, Charles Watson of River Action, who gave a passionate account of the challenges associated with campaigning for clean rivers in the New Forst and nationally. The following three speakers, from Southern Water, Freshwater Habitats Trust, and Environment Agency, then provided different perspectives of how freshwater pollution issues are being monitored and tackled in the New Forest.

Charles Watson delivering the opening keynote.

The second morning session included an introduction to the New Forest National Park Authority ‘Net Zero with Nature’ programme, followed by two presentations by Wild New Forest exploring the past, present, and future impacts of climate change on our region; the session concluded with an update on habitat restoration work conducted by Forestry England, and a brief introduction to a new project at University of Exeter looking at smoke stimulated germination of heathland plants.

After lunch, attendees participated in a workshop that provided an opportunity to discuss climate change risks and opportunities in more detail. This was followed by a series of presentation by partners delivering the New Forest Species Survival Fund project, before the day concluded with topical updates on deer management, a new socio-ecological study of large herbivores, and commoning and farming activities in the New Forest.   

Breakout group for the climate change workshop

Day two opened with two keynote speakers, Steve Cham and Andy Barker, who presented on the changes to our dragonfly and butterfly communities in recent decades. The remainder of the morning focussed on species studies, including Sand Lizards, Pitcher Plants, Field Gentian, Green Forest Hoverfly, Speckled Footman, breeding raptors, coastal birds, and fungi DNA.

Steve Cham delivering the first keynote of day two.

The post-lunch workshop saw attendees contribute ideas and perspectives on biodiversity and conservation volunteering, which helped to shape the New Forest Volunteer Ecological Surveyor Programme that was launched later in the spring.

The final afternoon session focussed on vertebrates, with presentations on Bechstein’s Bats, Woodlarks, Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers, passive acoustic monitoring, recreational disturbance of birds, and coastal fish.

The slides and abstracts for the talks are available here, together with those from the 2024 event.

2026 call for speakers

The 2026 conference will take place on 03-04 March 2026 at the same venue in Brockenhurst. We are now inviting speakers for this event, either for standard 15 minute presentations or for shorter 5 minute flash talks. We are particularly keen to receive offers of presentations that relate to biodiversity and conservation updates from the New Forest National Park in calendar year 2025, although talks that introduce new projects and/or provide wider spatial and temporal context will also be considered.

At this stage, we request that suggested titles, author(s), and a couple of lines of description are sent to the NFBF Chair at russ@wildnewforest.org.uk. The deadline for these submissions is 12 Jan 2026, and the final programme will be developed following consultation with the NFBF Steering group and Sponsors.

We will subsequently request abstracts (summaries) for all talks that are accepted for inclusion in the conference programme, and these will be made available online after the event.

Finally, please note that conference registration will open in early January, but due to the limited capacity of 100 spaces the event is invite-only (although all speakers benefit from free registration).