Memorandum submitted by the East Midlands
Local Records Centre and Evidence Group (EMLRC) of the East Midlands
Biodiversity Forum.
BACKGROUND
The East Midlands Local Records Centres (EMLRC)
was set up in 2002 as a forum to exchange information, techniques
and examples of good practice between the Local Records Centres
of the East Midlands, namely those working in Leicestershire,
Rutland, Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Lincolnshire and Northamptonshire.
In 2007 The EMLRC joined the East Midlands Biodiversity
Forum (EMBF) as a specialist sub-group and renamed the East Midlands
LRC and Evidence Group. The EMBF is the main biodiversity (and
now geodiversity) advisory group to the East Midlands Assembly
and has made major contributions to the East Midlands Regional
Spatial Strategy which highlights the importance of habitat protection
and recreation, and the need for accurate biodiversity information
and monitoring statistics to measure change due to management
and climate effects.
The National Biodiversity Network defines an
LRC as
"a not-for-profit service run in partnership
for the public benefit, which collects, collates, manages and
disseminates information of known quality relating to marine and
terrestrial wildlife, wildlife and geological sites and habitats
for a defined geographical area"
Local Records Centres (LRCs) are now recognized
as an important part of any local biodiversity group and network
which is responsible for protecting and developing the biodiversity
of an area. They are key information centres between individual
recorders and the users of information in the planning, land management
and nature conservation worlds. The EMLRCs hold over 7 million
ecological records between them.
RESPONSE
The EMLRC group wishes to comment on Questions
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1. What are the barriers..
A key barrier remains the lack of recognition
in the wider biological and nature conservation industries of
the importance of systematics.
2. The role of systematics| How important|.
Integration with other areas of research|
The correct identification of species in the
environment is the most important starting point of any environmental
research. This is aided by pertinent research on the naming and
relationships of species, the creation of usable identification
aids, the creation and maintenance of stable checklists and their
availability electronically in recording software, and the requirement
from funding bodies that adequate voucher specimen collections
are created and maintained as a fundamental part in any research
based on species or habitat.
3. What progress has been made in setting
up a body to lead on this?
LRCs look towards the National Biodiversity
Network (NBN) to represent the views of the wider recording community,
as the NBN Trust has direct contact with the Natural History Museum,
the JNCC and others who have a systematic responsibility or requirement.
To take on this role however it would need to be more formally
connected to LRCs though a national or regional network and other
groups of users, including the academic world and funding research
councils.
The Natural History Museum would also be well-placed
but would need to have a means of consulting with local users
of taxonomy and systematics which it currently does not have,
and has no track record of consulting the wider recording world.
It of course has a commendable record in systematic research and
in recent years more focus in supporting taxonomic work most useful
to the UK.
The funding research councils have funds but
no track record of promoting taxonomic good practice by, for example,
the creation of voucher specimens in support of research, the
preservation of key samples and the payment of their long-term
curation.
A new body would need to be empowered to set
the priorities for research, consult widely, be accountable for
that, and be a statutory consultee to the planned priorities of
the key players—the research councils, Natural History Museum,
Natural England, NBN, JNCC etc. It could report on how bodies
it advised were responding to its priorities.
7. Does the way in which taxonomic data is
collected|.
Most LRCs have connections with their recording
communities and other data suppliers, as well as a wide range
of data users.
Weak areas are:
— Most LRCs are under-resourced to
carry out all the functions and process all the information available
or required.
— There is no development of RECORDER,
the main record management package, to enable it to work well
with Geographical Information Systems.
— There is no development of RECORDER
to allow cost-effective data entry and editing by individuals
through a website.
— There is no development of RECORDER
to allow better access to map-based information via local websites—as
opposed to the NBN.
— There is no development of the NBN
Gateway to allow direct accessing of local LRC databases.
What is the state of local and national recording
schemes|
— National Societies provide very variable
access to their information. The NBN should negotiate detailed
access to all National Society records.
— Some national societies do not break
down their data to the county level.
— Some NGOs refuse to break down their
information to a regional or county level, making this important
information resource unavailable.
8. What is the role of major regional museums?
Some major regional museums have lost curatorial
posts in the past 10 years. Museums have a major role in the holding
of collections to aid accurate identifications, to support expert
curators and to house new voucher material. The importance of
museum collections needs to be more widely known in the conservation
and land management world and this link should be promoted by
the NBN. Links from the NBN website should be made to collection
level inventory websites such as FENSCORE and BioCase ( http://fenscore.man.ac.uk/
and www.biocase.org/ respectiveley)
11. How does the taxonomic community engage
with the non-taxonomic community
The importance of taxonomics and systematics
needs to be raised within the whole of biology—schools,
universities, research funders, NGOs as well as natural history
societies and LRCs.
Taxonomy and identification skills should have
an enhanced role in the teaching of biology, along with the importance
of collections. Biology GCSE and A-level should include a module
on the identification of common plant and animal species as a
means of encouraging local knowledge of the local environment.
Field studies opportunities have a potentially
very important place in the teaching of identification skills.
Attending substantial field course should be part of a specialist
qualification for Biology teachers.
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