New reports explore efficiency of data flow into the UK Marine Strategy

Wednesday, August 10, 2022

News Item 2022

A set of recently published reports discuss how to improve the efficiency of data flow into the UK marine Strategy.

Under the UK Marine Strategy (UK MS) the UK is required to determine and measure the status of the health of its seas, drawing on data drawn from multiple sources. JNCC has undertaken work on behalf of Defra to understand where biodiversity data collected by statutory environmental bodies is published and how it flows into the UK MS indicator assessments.

A set of new reports demonstrate the complexity of the data landscape across a series of monitoring programmes. The work highlights where data flow could be streamlined, improved or, where there are missing data links, could be created. The recommendations in the reports are the first step in achieving a more inclusive, accessible, and robust marine biodiversity evidence base.

These reports can be used by Defra, statutory environmental bodies, UK Marine Strategy indicator leads, and the wider public to:

better understand the UK marine biodiversity data landscape;
improve transparency in data sources used for UK MS indicator assessments;
focus effort on improving the flow of data into UK MS indicator assessments;
focus effort on improving the accessibility of marine biodiversity data collected by UK statutory environmental bodies.

Contributors to the reports providing expert input were: Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute (AFBI); The Biodiversity Information Group (BioDIG) of the Healthy Biologically Diverse Seas Evidence Group (HBDSEG); Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs, Northern Ireland (DAERA); Environment Agency; The Inter-Agency Marine Mammal Working Group (IAMMWG); Natural England (NE); Natural Resources Wales (NRW); NatureScot; Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA); Marine Scotland Science Sea Mammal Research Unit (SMRU).

The reports are available through JNCC's Resource Hub: