In the last couple of months, SBIF has been referenced in a major publication on the development of a single Scottish Biodiversity Indicator Development of a Combined Marine and Terrestrial Biodiversity Indicator for Scotland. The SBIF Review Recommendations have been highlighted as a mechanism to help make a real difference to the accuracy of the proposed indicator.
From the report’s Executive Summary, “We have in this report identified a range of steps that might be taken to improve upon this indicator. Some are far-reaching changes to the structure of biodiversity recording, such as those recommended by the Scottish Biodiversity Information Forum (SBIF) review (Wilson et al. 2018) to lead to a much improved system for biodiversity data collection, collation, curation and use in Scotland: if implemented this would lead to many improvements in data availability.”
From paragraph 178 of the report, “As well as the need to nurture the recording and monitoring community, there is a clear case for the transformation of existing infrastructure for biological recording to improve data flows and thereby ensure data collected becomes available for use, and thus encourages increased recording. Our consultation with data stakeholders, who are essential for the successful continuation of the proposed indicator, identified the implementation of the findings of A Review of the Biological Recording Infrastructure in Scotland (Wilson et al. 2018) as the key step in securing a step change in data availability in Scotland. This would not only secure the data required for the indicator proposed in this report, but enable substantial improvements in future iterations.”
This indicates the high esteem that the SBIF Review and its Recommendations are held in.