Hosted by Sheepdrove Organic Farm near Lambourn in Berkshire, our research project is well and truly underway and we're delighted to report that student Efe has just flown through his first year Viva at the University of the West of England. This project is sponsored by Natwest Climate Solutions and our aim is to create a user friendly toolkit for measuring the carbon sequestration benefits of nature led rewilding projects, so we can account for it in future carbon offsetting markets.

Message from Sam Bonnet - PhD supervisor
"Efe has been a data generating machine this summer! He's responded to every

challenge he's faced and I'm really pleased with the initial results."

Message from Efe Okekporo - PhD student

"The chamber construction was challenging as I had to channel my inner engineering skills - not that I had any! Many thanks to the technicians at UWE Frenchay campus - Tom, Marcus, and Jasper - for helping with the fabrication. It was interesting to see the chamber come to life. Sampling at Sheepdrove was difficult due to the tall vegetation. Moving the gas analyser and the chamber through the thick vegetation during sampling was a labour of love. The fun part was that I had great support from some amazing people - Ruby, Marcus, and Rhiannon - who made it remarkable. It would be anticlimactic not to mention the nettles! They left their mark - they were always so polite to make their presence felt!"

The next year will see Efe and the team working on the temporal part of the project - with monthly visits to Sheepdrove in the pipeline, Efe will find the British countryside has more than stinging nettles to make him uncomfortable!