Back in January, we opened the call for contributions to Nature Connections 2026 on 16th July. Since then, the response has been both heartening and revealing. We were oversubscribed three-fold, pointing toward a field that continues to deepen, diversify, and innovate in how it understands the human-nature relationship.

Before looking into the themes of the day, a couple of announcements.

Firstly, our keynote speaker for the morning will see the return of Tony Juniper CBE. Tony is a prominent environmental figure who has been active in the defence of nature for more than 40 years. He has run global campaigns, written many books, and advised at the highest levels. He has led a number of major organisations and is currently Chair of Natural England. It will be 10 years, 1 month, and 1 day since Tony opened Nature Connections in 2016, and it will be interesting to reflect on how things have moved on since then.

Second, in addition to the talks, we’ll be hosting a panel discussion: Rooted in Evidence: How Nature Connection can inform Policy and Decision-Making. We’ll have more details on the panel members soon.

And, of course, you’ll hear from me, I’ll be closing the day this year.

Back to the themes of the talks on the day. Across submissions from researchers, practitioners, artists, educators, health professionals, and community organisations, a few patterns stand out.

One is an increasing emphasis on belonging – to place, to landscapes, to local ecologies, and to the communities that form around them. Another is a widening commitment to inclusion, with thoughtful work exploring how nature connection can be made tangible and meaningful for people who face barriers to access, whether physical, social, cultural, or structural.

There is also a renewed attention to the textures of experience: the sensory, aesthetic, and emotional qualities of being in nature, and how these shape identity, memory, and wellbeing. From creative methods to long-term learning programmes, many contributors are examining how sustained, repeated, or carefully supported encounters with nature can lead to deeper shifts than one-off experiences alone.

Innovation features strongly too – digital, artistic, place-based, and co-created approaches that invite people to encounter nature differently. Whether through gardening, the night sky, citizen science, therapeutic programmes, or new forms of design and infrastructure, the work shared points to nature connection as a living, evolving practice.

Perhaps most striking, however, is the continued movement toward relational thinking: seeing nature connection not simply as an individual outcome, but as part of wider cultural, ecological, and social processes. Many of this year’s contributions explore how connection can support stewardship, creativity, ecological responsibility, or collective wellbeing, and how people and places shape one another over time.

All of this promises a rich and thoughtful programme in July, one grounded in evidence, creativity, care, and a shared desire to understand how people can live well with the rest of nature. And if you’re joining us, we look forward to gathering to explore these ideas together – bookings are open!