Please see iNaturalistUK Questions and Answers for more general background on iNaturalistUK including how to set up an account and affiliate to the iNaturalistUK site. The questions on this page are aimed at answering queries of recording schemes and societies and other data managers.

1. What is iNaturalistUK?

iNaturalistUK is part of the iNaturalist Network, a growing international community. By affiliating with iNaturalistUK wildlife sightings will be able to be shared, through the BRC, with schemes and societies in the UK. There will be no change with how these sightings are shared and made available internationally.

Learn more about Network Affiliation

iNaturalistUK is a partnership between the NBN Trust, the Marine Biological Association (MBA) and the Biological Records Centre (BRC).

2. What will happen to iNaturalistUK sightings?

All records on iNaturalistUK that reach ‘research’ grade are shared with GBIF, the Global Biodiversity Information Facility, where they can be freely viewed and downloaded subject to licensing conditions. Researchers, local environmental records centres, wildlife trusts and other conservation organisations may also view and use the data to increase their knowledge and understanding of the UK’s biodiversity.

3. Will iNaturalistUK data be shared to national recording schemes and societies?

Being part of the iNaturalist Network allows the recording community, through this partnership, enhanced access to UK records. The BRC in particular will be working to improve the ways recording schemes can utilise iNaturalistUK data. The Biological Records Centre have recently relaunched the import of iNaturalist data into iRecord. Read more about iNaturalistUK And Its Place In Biological Recording Data Flow. See also their help page iRecord and iNaturalist

4. Will iNaturalistUK data be shared to other organisations?

The NBN Trust, MBA and BRC will be working together over the next few months to confirm processes of sharing iNaturalistUK data with other organisations such as LERC’s and government agencies. Once we have established how this will work we will update the network on these pages and in Network News.

5. Will iNaturalistUK data be shared directly to the NBN Atlas?

There are no plans in the short or long term for the NBN Trust staff to carry out work to transfer data directly from iNaturalistUK to the NBN Atlas, other than the exports we currently do at the request of NBN Atlas data providers. For example, CEDaR’s iNaturalist records from Northern Ireland. As mentioned above the BRC will be supporting Schemes and Societies in ways to add iNaturalistUK data to the NBN Atlas if  this is something they wish to do.

Further Information

There is lots more information in the Help section on the iNaturalist website. The iNaturalist Forum is also a useful place to ask questions and for discussions. Please note that the Help content and Forum is provided by iNaturalist.org and not by the NBN Trust.