In this issue:

• NBN Atlas data updates – another milestone!
• NBN Trust receives a National Lottery Community Fund
• Better Biodiversity Data project
• Love Your Burial Ground Week
• GiGL’s 30 year milestone
• Help design the next banknotes
• Global Wildlife Biobanking Gap Analysis
• Citizen Scientists wanted for Europe-wide survey
• National Education Nature Park – June updates
• Recruitment of Executive Secretary for GBIF

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The post Network News – June 2026 appeared first on National Biodiversity Network.

2026 is a year of significant anniversaries for GiGL (Greenspace Information for Greater London). We launched as a hosted local environmental records centre 20 years ago, having spent two years in a development phase with a clear goal of established diversified and sustainable revenue streams from our services. This development phase built on work I started 25 years ago this year, with the launch of our data search service for clients, and the setting up of our first ever service level agreement, with the London Borough of Redbridge. This development was thanks in large part to LB Redbridge’s new Nature Conservation Officer at the time, who had worked with Dorset Environmental Records Centre in a previous role and was keen to support what we were trying to achieve for Greater London.

All of this built on the work of London Wildlife Trust’s Biological Recording Project (BRP), which launched 30 years ago in May 1996 after a lot of preparatory work and a successful funding bid to Bridgehouse Estates Trust. Alistair Kirk started in post as the new Biological Recording Officer to set up what was essentially a pilot project that would demonstrate aspects of what a local records centre could do for nature and people in London.

Establishing robust systems to centralise and analyse data was essential to the project’s success, but bringing people and organisations on board with the idea so they could help shape its direction was even more important.

London’s First Biodiversity Data Systems

Alistair set up a version of Recorder 3, an MS-DOS based database developed in partnership by English Nature and the Wildlife Trusts that was designed to manage site and species data to a national standard.

The initial species data entry focused on London Wildlife Trust’s surveys of their nature reserves, then moved on to inputting the results of the Trust’s first stag beetle survey in 1997, and the People’s Trust for Endangered Species stag beetle survey in 1998.

Alongside setting up Recorder 3, Alistair was also creating London-wide GIS datasets from scratch, including mapping all of the Trust’s reserves, London’s Sites of Special Scientific Interest, Local Nature Reserves and Sites of Metropolitan Importance for the first time, an essential step towards the agreed approach to developing London’s biodiversity action plan. Whilst this may sound fairly straightforward, the challenges of developing a site-based system that linked to agreed boundaries and included unique site codes for the whole of Greater London were significant.

Stakeholder Support & Engagement

The Biological Recording Project was stakeholder led from the outset, and its advisory group was made up of representatives from London Ecology Unit, London Natural History Society, London Wildlife Trust, English Nature and the Environment Agency.  A wider network of stakeholders were involved in various events organised by the BRP to showcase its work and that of its partners for the duration of the funded project.

Alistair also spent a lot of time running introductory sessions to the BRP for people from local and national organisations keen to see the progress the project was making and to see GIS in action, often for the first time. I joined the BRP as the assistant biological recording officer a year after it started.

From Project to Records Centre

Soon after the BRP began, the Wildlife Trusts launched a series of regional consultations to support a bid to the Esmée Fairbairn Charitable Trust for a UK-wide project developing the role of records centres within the National Biodiversity Network. The project focused on best practice in biological recording and standards for data exchange, verification and access.

Although the London Wildlife Trust was unsuccessful in its bid for London to become one of the three pilot areas in the NBN’s ‘Linking Local Records Centres’ project, the BRP still benefited greatly through Ralph Gaines, the Trust’s Head of Conservation, who sat on the Wildlife Trusts’ NBN Group. The project’s workshops and conferences also connected us with colleagues from more established records centres, who were generous in sharing their knowledge and experience.

In late 1999, Alistair left the Trust to become the manager of Surrey Biodiversity Information Centre, and despite the initial grant funding having run out, I was asked to step up into the now vacant biological recording officer role.

I attended the always brilliant annual conference for the National Federation for Biological Recording (NFBR) in 2000, as they continued to champion the local records centre network within the wider NBN. I learnt a lot, and found myself sitting on a train platform afterwards with Alistair in his new role in Surrey and Henri from the Sussex Biodiversity Records Centre comparing notes about the various challenges we had in common. We agreed it was really helpful to talk to people in a similar role, so we organised and held the inaugural meeting of the London and South East Local Records Centre group soon afterwards. We still meet to this day to collaborate, share ideas and offer sanctuary.

And after 30 years of nature data, people, and persistence, the proud GiGL team celebrated a successful London Day of Nature in mid May – complete with the NBN Open Data Award, which we won in November 2025!

You can read the full article here.

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Free webinars

This year’s Churches Count on Nature free webinar series kicked off with a session on recording wildlife – a Beginner’s Guide to iNaturalist – Why Record? Caring for God’s Acre Director, Harriet Carty, talks about the value of churchyards for nature and the importance of biological recording, and how they can be used both locally and nationally.

Biodiversity Data Manager Hannah Risser goes through the practicalities of recording, including using iNaturalist. Knowing what wildlife is in burial grounds can be a great help to site managers and those planning change. These records are also used by scientists to identify the national situation and monitor changes that happen over time.

All records are of value, both of common and of rare species, and everyone who takes part in a recording event for Churches Count on Nature is helping to build up a picture and is a great example of citizen science.

Monday 8 June

Tuesday 9 June

Wednesday 10 June

Thursday 11 June

Friday 12 June

Towns and cities will feature in God’s Green Spaces looking at a range of wildlife, particularly the role of urban churchyards and burial grounds as relatively undisturbed, protected green space.

All the webinars are free to attend and if you are not able to join on the day, you can still register and you will be sent a link to catch up at a time that suits you.

Find out more about Caring for God’s Acre and go to the Beautiful Burial Ground Data Portal, part of the NBN Atlas.

The post Love Your Burial Ground Week appeared first on National Biodiversity Network.

If so, your input is requested for a Europe-wide study which is looking for active and former volunteers from citizen science projects who are willing to share their experiences and perspectives in a short online survey (approx. 10–15 minutes).

The study examines the relationship between participation in citizen science projects and trust in science. It is being conducted as part of the collaborative project Trust in Citizen Science (TiCS).

This research is important for understanding how engagement in citizen science relates to public trust in science and can help strengthen the design and impact of citizen science initiatives across Europe.

As a token of appreciation for taking part, 10 × €50 Amazon vouchers will be raffled among all participants. You will also have the opportunity to receive information about the study results after the survey is completed (expected in autumn 2026).

Learn more and take the survey.

The post Citizen Scientists wanted for Europe-wide survey appeared first on National Biodiversity Network.

Although an important strategic framework now exists, there remains limited consolidated empirical data on current global practice, infrastructure capacity, implementation constraints, and regional disparities, particularly across lower-income regions and underrepresented taxa.

A multi-institutional group of collaborators has therefore been convened to undertake a structured global survey titled “Global Wildlife Biobanking Gap Analysis: Practices, Capacity, Risks and Opportunities.” The aim is to generate an independent, evidence-based overview of wildlife biobanking activity across taxa, regions, and institution types, and to identify practical capacity gaps and priority needs that may inform future coordination, training, policy development, and international collaboration. Wildlife biobanking, encompassing the preservation of biological materials such as plants, seeds, sperm, eggs, embryos, tissues, DNA, and cell lines, supports assisted reproduction, genetic rescue, disease research, and reference collections across zoos, museums, and research institutions worldwide. The survey has already received support from a number of leading global organisations.

Participation

The survey includes two participation pathways to reflect the diversity of experience across the wildlife conservation community:

1. For participants directly involved in wildlife biobanking, including those managing, operating, or contributing to biobank collections, questions focus on current practices, infrastructure, specimen holdings, and access.
2. For participants not directly engaged in biobanking, including those working in wildlife conservation, research, collection management, or related fields who are aware of, collaborate with, use, may benefit from, or are interested in understanding biobanking and its potential future role in conservation. These questions focus on awareness, needs, barriers, and perspectives on future development.

Participation is voluntary, responses are anonymous and reported only in aggregated form, and the survey takes approximately 20 – 40 minutes to complete, depending on the level of detail each respondent is able to provide, particularly regarding collection inventory, the accessibility of institutional records, and any legal or ownership restrictions that may apply to stored material. Most questions are multiple choice, and recent respondents have found it takes around 20–35 minutes to complete. The survey will remain open until 31 October 2026.

Take the survey

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Working with a panel of wildlife experts from across the UK, the Bank of England has produced a shortlist of animals that could become the central image on the £5, £10, £20 and £50 notes.

The list has been grouped into three categories – 1. Mammals 2. Birds 3. Amphibians, insects and fish – which cover a variety of species and environments. The public can select up to two examples from each category in a consultation running until 3 July.

You can find out more and vote for your favourites here.

The shortlist

Like others, we also recognise that whilst this is great news for British Wildlife, it’s a shame that plants and fungi have been overlooked. It will be interesting to see what public opinion chooses, in due course.

The post Help design the next banknotes appeared first on National Biodiversity Network.

GBIF is the foremost global resource for biodiversity information. It is an international organisation based on a multilateral agreement among countries and international organisations, with its operational headquarters (Secretariat) in Copenhagen, and a global network of national biodiversity information facilities and partners. Its informatics infrastructure currently enables open access to close to 4 billion biodiversity data records for scientific analysis, decision-making and application.

The NBN Trust is the UK node for GBIF.

Key responsibilities of the Executive Secretary

The Executive Secretary, based in Copenhagen, heads the Secretariat of approximately 35 staff, and is responsible to the Governing Board for developing and implementing GBIF’s strategic plans, operating the infrastructure, serving users and fostering partnerships. The Executive Secretary has overall responsibility for financial stability and a thriving organisation, and reports to the Chair of the Board.

Further information

All of the information relating to the role can be found on the GBIF website.

The closing date for applications is 24 July 2026 and the post holder is expected to commence in the role in February 2027.

The post Recruitment of Executive Secretary for GBIF appeared first on National Biodiversity Network.

The NBN Trust is pleased to announce that we have been awarded £11,100 from the National Lottery Community Fund (NLCF) Awards for All England – Environment.

Between April 2026 and April 2027, we will deliver a series of online engagement and training webinars for the following:

• Introducing people to wildlife recording
• How to use the NBN Atlas to share biodiversity data and see what wildlife has been recorded in a local area
• Showcasing data-led stories about wildlife from records held within the NBN Atlas.

We will also develop and share digital training guides on using citizen science apps such as iNaturalistUK, enabling people to identify, connect with and care for nature in their area.

We are really excited to be able to expand this area of work further as a result of this funding and we will provide more information on the above events and guides in the coming months.

The NLCF Awards for All England – Environment funding programme is still open for applications and more information can be found on its website. 

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📊 New data resources

Botanical Society of Britain & Ireland

🌱 Plant Atlas 2020 – vascular plant and charophyte 10 x 10 km grid square locations, subdivided by survey period, up to 2019 – 6,342,329 new records

🌱 Plant Atlas 2020 – vascular plant and charophyte 2 x 2 km grid square locations, subdivided by survey period, up to 2019 – 21,873,223 new records

🔄 Updated data resources

Botanical Society of Britain & Ireland

BSBI data from several English counties, up to 2018 – 19,218,615 new or updated records. Total for this data resource = 29,061,032

Other BSBI Scottish data up to 2018 – 2,862,806 new or updated records. Total for this data resource = 8,730,445

BSBI data on the NBN Atlas – total records = 69,181,656

Bat Conservation Trust

NBMP Sunset-Sunrise Survey – 2,688 new and updated records. Total for this data resource = 11,301.

BCT records on NBN Atlas – total records = 237,651

Fife Nature Records Centre

Fife Nature Records Centre Combined Dataset – 108,208 new and updated records. Total for this data resource = 453,677

Fife Nature Records Centre records on NBN Atlas – total records = 455,441

Fungus Conservation Trust

Fungus Conservation Trust – CATE – 2,891 new records. Total for this data resource and total records on NBN Atlas = 1,664,480

MammalWeb

MammalWeb records Non-Commercial (pre-2024) – 962 new or updated records. Total for this data resource = 104,874

MammalWeb records (post-2024) – 14,121 new or updated records. Total for this data resource = 172,264

MammalWeb records on NBN Atlas – Total records = 277,138

Natural History Museum, London

Collection Specimens – 2,796 new or updated records

Natural History Museum, London records on NBN Atlas – Total for this data resource and total records on NBN Atlas = 1,231,071

People’s Trust for Endangered Species

National Dormouse Database (NDD) – 2,211 new or updated records. Total for this data resource = 43,249.

People’s Trust for Endangered Species records on NBN Atlas – Total records = 507,428

West Wales Biodiversity Information Centre

INNS Data: All Taxa (West Wales) – 6,422 new or updated records. Total for this data resource = 35,837

Mammal Records (West Wales) – 3,163 new or updated records. Total for this data resource = 51,777

WWBIC records on NBN Atlas – Total records = 320,390

🤝 Welcoming new data partners

The Species Recovery Trust

Species Recovery Trust UK 2025 plant and insect records – 362 new records on NBN Atlas
A dataset of insect and plant records collected by Species Recovery Trust staff and volunteers during 2025 as part of its rare species programmes.

UK BIOSCAN

UK BIOSCAN DNA-derived occurrence records 2019-2025 United Kingdom – 280,491 new records on NBN Atlas
UK BIOSCAN is a large-scale individual specimen DNA barcoding initiative coordinated by the Wellcome Sanger Institute as part of the global BIOSCAN programme. The dataset comprises COI (cytochrome c oxidase subunit I) barcode sequences generated from individual macroinvertebrate specimens collected across the United Kingdom, primarily using Malaise traps deployed at partner sites spanning a range of habitats.

Thank you!

A huge thank you to all our data partners and to the dedicated verifiers who ensure the quality of these records. Every new dataset strengthens our collective understanding of UK biodiversity and supports better conservation decisions.

If you’re interested in sharing your data with the NBN Atlas, we’d love to hear from you!

Explore our full list and map of data partners on the NBN Atlas.

The post NBN Atlas data updates appeared first on National Biodiversity Network.

In this issue:

• NBN Awards – nominate before 18 May!
• NBN Conference – save the date!
• Earth Raise success – thank you!
• NBN Trust awarded £50,000 from the Garfield Weston Foundation
• Two new Trustees strengthen NBN Trust board
• NBN Trust joins British Standards Institution’s national committee on Biodiversity
• Latest data updates to the NBN Atlas
• POSTnote – Evidence for nature recovery
• Revealing the hidden world of Scotland’s rainforest
• Can you help with vital wildlife surveys in your local area?
• Join the National BioBlitz 23 – 31 May 2026
• National Plant Health Week 11-17 May
• National Education Nature Park – May updates
• Help shape support for the protection and restoration of nature

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