A highlight of the conference for many was a session delivered by Lucy Jenner, Savills Head of Natural Capital Consultancy. Alongside this role, Lucy is a PhD researcher at the University of Edinburgh, focusing on land use and environmental science. With increasing demands on this finite resource, she supports landowners in exploring how changes in land management can deliver both environmental and economic benefits.
Her talk shone a light on personal change, sector-wide change and human behaviour. Successful adaptation depends less on forcing change and more on understanding people: their instincts, their relationships, and the values they share.
Rather than presenting farmers as resistant or slow to change, Lucy reframed the contextual landscape:
Rational actors under pressure
Social learners embedded in communities
Emotional decision-makers navigating uncertainty
The “animal archetypes” (owl, fox, donkey, sheep) that Lucy referred to give a non-judgemental language for understanding different behavioural responses to change. No type is “wrong”; progress requires everyone working together and change happens when three conditions are present:
Trust (social capital)
Local, peer-based learning
Shared values
While for some desk-based colleagues, January may signal a reluctant return to work after the festivities, for the rural sector the conference is a fantastic way to start the year, reconnect with people, make new connections and listen to speakers who will continue to challenge our thinking – a must in a changing environment.