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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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