Minister shown the future
JNCC
Peterborough-based nature conservation advisers reveal to
Jim Knight MP how the UK leads the world in discovering species
and habitat trends.
Government nature conservation advisers JNCC played host
to Biodiversity Minister Jim Knight MP last week,
and took the opportunity to demonstrate a "crystal
ball for nature", a huge internet-accessible
high-tech information system for biodiversity
data.
The Minister visited the Joint Nature Conservation
Committee at their offices in Monkstone House,
Peterborough. The "NBN Gateway" (www.searchnbn.net),
whose development has been driven by a multi-organisation
collaboration known as the National Biodiversity
Network, is a way to rapidly access data on the
UK's natural resources - its habitats and species
- to help direct our future actions.
Information about wildlife at around three quarters
of a million locations throughout the UK can now
be retrieved within seconds, online, through one
of the most advanced databases of its kind in
the world. JNCC showed the Minister the analyses
made possible by this advance, which allow trends
for several thousand species to be detected and
related to a range of economic and social factors
affecting land use.
Around 20 million observations of plants, butterflies,
birds, dragonflies, mosses, and many other species
groups are now contained within the system, and
are the result of the work of thousands of expert
volunteer naturalists, and survey teams from public
bodies and Non-Government Organisations. Collaboration
on an unprecedented scale has led to 54 local
and national organisations providing access to
their information. The website makes clear the
contribution of each organisation, and encourages
users to get in touch where interpretation is
needed.
Jim Knight noted: "the potential outputs
from this system are remarkable. It really is
a case that the overall service available is much
greater than the sum of its parts. By applying
the right parameters, we can see what actions
are likely to be of most benefit, on the ground,
for everyone's natural local heritage. I'm delighted
that my department has played a significant role
in encouraging the establishment of the National
Biodiversity Network through targeted research
funding."
The progress made by collaborating bodies, facilitated
by the National Biodiversity Network Trust in
developing this service, have been a talking point
at an international conference in Brazil. The
Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) is happening
in Curitiba, the ecological capital city of Brazil,
and JNCC is there encouraging other countries
to become part of a worldwide version of the concept
- GBIF, the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.
They will show how appropriate analysis makes
such information systems a key tool in helping
deliver the Convention's key target to slow the
decline in biodiversity by 2010.
Deryck Steer, Managing Director of JNCC, is one of the staff
at CBD. "We must encourage the availability of this
type of information globally. It's important that all countries
can identify and show what is causing declines of biodiversity
if the overall target of reducing biodiversity loss is to
be met. I hope we can use opportunities in Brazil to inspire
a growing number of countries to draw on our example"
said Mr Steer. "In the UK we also need to make good
use of global information to help us decouple the links between
a wide range of activities such as international trade, aid,
tourism and business investment, to help reduce biodiversity
loss."
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