The National Biodiversity Network Trust (NBN Trust) welcomes the importance placed on UK biodiversity data – as the essential evidence base to reverse the devastating decline in biodiversity – in the “Nature Positive 2030” report published on 22 September by the UK’s five statutory nature agencies (Joint Nature Conservation Committee, Natural England, Natural Resources Wales, NatureScot and the Northern Ireland Environment Agency).
The NBN Trust manages the NBN Atlas – a vast wildlife database which currently holds over 200 million records across 46,587 species?– from ladybirds, red squirrels and toads through to rare lichen, fungi and endangered insects.
The “Nature Positive 2030” report sets out the priority actions and achievable steps for becoming ‘Nature Positive’ – that is, reversing the UK’s biodiversity decline – by 2030. While the UK is not currently on track to becoming nature positive by 2030, this aim is achievable if nine changes – that can be delivered rapidly – are adopted by national and local governments, land-owners, businesses and others.
One of the nine priorities from the report is:
- “Developing the UK’s evidence base so that it is ready to support the larger, transformative changes underway.”
All eight of the report’s other priority actions need the information and understanding of this evidence to win support and guide decisions.
This is where the National Biodiversity Network Trust, along with all the organisations and individuals that contribute wildlife data to the NBN Atlas, will be able to play a vital role.
Lisa Chilton, CEO of the NBN Trust, says:
“It’s crucial that we make data work for nature – that we use it to inform policies and actions that will reverse the biodiversity crisis in the UK. The NBN Trust, together with its 160-plus data partners, is well placed to push nature back into recovery.
“It’s vital that the UK and devolved governments invest adequately in the NBN Trust and our partners to make sure that wildlife data can be accessed in the right form at the right time to make the right conservation decisions”.