Terrestrial monitoring schemes in the UK: We partner with other organisations to run 11 biodiversity monitoring schemes that produce valuable data that contributes to the overall surveillance and monitoring needs in the UK.
Terrestrial monitoring involves gathering information about the various components of the UK biodiversity, from genes to ecosystems. Despite providing people essential services such as food production, biodiversity and ecosystems are under significant global pressure.
Monitoring our wildlife helps us understand how and why biodiversity is changing and how to manage those changes. This knowledge can inform management actions and policy decisions at national and local levels, as well as evaluate short- and long-term success of conservation actions and interventions.
JNCC plays an important role in collecting and gathering biodiversity information through partnerships. For over 30 years, volunteer-based species recording schemes have been central to JNCC’s work. We collaborate with many organisations across the UK and environment sector to monitor various taxa across the UK. These long-term partnerships have enabled UK-wide biodiversity monitoring, particularly for bats, birds, butterflies, plants, and pollinators.
These monitoring schemes are run by a range of expert organisations whose networks of thousands of volunteers carry out fieldwork and submit their records to the schemes. The complexity of the natural environment, combined with limited financial and material resources, requires that each monitoring scheme is carefully designed. The partnerships JNCC have convened provide the appropriate mix of commitment, experience and expertise to ensure the sustainability and long-term success of those recording schemes.
We aim to capture the complexity of the natural environment while addressing constraints by collaborating on carefully designed monitoring programs and using new technologies. By partnering with organisations that involve volunteers, we ensure a cost-effective approach to gathering data. These data are used for a range of applications, including policymaking and conservation management, and contribute to the development of official statistics, indicators, and reports.
Beyond working with our monitoring partners, JNCC collaborates with a range of organisations, including statutory conservation bodies, non-governmental organisations, research centres, academia and private sector. This collaborative work allows for the sharing of knowledge and best practices across these organisations, enhancing terrestrial monitoring in the UK.
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Value and scope of monitoring schemes: Data collected by citizen science monitoring are valuable for a variety of applications, including provision of trends on the state of UK and country biodiversity that help inform policy and conservation decisions.
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Collaborative working: Effective biodiversity monitoring requires partnership working, to make best use of the expertise held by different organisations, in pursuit of shared priorities. We have extensive experience of facilitating partnerships.
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Monitoring strategies: We develop cost-effective strategies and approaches to monitoring the natural environment, making best use of emerging techniques and technologies.
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