§ Mr. MeacherTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what plans she has to ensure sustainable funding for national survey and monitoring schemes in order to(a) mobilise and (b) support the voluntary effort to gather the data on the state of Britain's biodiversity. [165069]
§ Mr. Bradshaw[holding answer 1 April 2004]: The work of volunteers is crucial to gathering data on the current state of our biodiversity. Volunteers have collected around 70 per cent. of all the data about species. This includes existing survey and monitoring schemes, including the Biological Records Centre:
- breeding and wintering birds;
- bats, otters and other mammals;
- butterflies and moths; and
- threatened plants.
An organisation called the National Biodiversity Network Trust is currently co-ordinating actions by a range of interested parties to bring together the efforts of volunteers. The work of the NBN Trust is supported by the Government agencies responsible for biodiversity and the Government support this work through the grant-in-aid to these agencies.
DEFRA has provided a direct contribution of £0.25 million per year to support technical elements of this work that were not being funded. Part of this work has been an exploration of how improved access to biodiversity data can improve the cost-effectiveness of delivering our agri-environmental schemes. This has demonstrated the huge importance of securing access to current information as a way of saving costs overall, and improving the outcomes. DEFRA is currently considering how to secure these benefits through increased support for the NBN process.
The work of volunteers is often focused on their local area and the NBN encourages local storage and quality assurance of these data. However, there are many national societies with networks of volunteers throughout the United Kingdom.
In some circumstances it is more effective to bring this information together in national data centres. The NBN provides a mechanism for both local and national data centres to provide access to their data. In May the latest version of this web-based mechanism, called the NBN Gateway, will be launched. Also, English Nature, 1188W supported by Treasury Capital Modernisation Funds, has created a public website that links with the NBN gateway to provide information to the public.
In addition to the work on the NBN, the Government will be considering this year how best to improve the coordination of the current monitoring and surveillance activities. This will ensure that the UK's state of nature is sufficiently monitored and that we make the best use of the voluntary sector and ensure that the sector receives the full support it needs to be fully effective.
While DEFRA is supporting the NBN process, and considering where further assistance may be needed, a major block to progress is the patchy support for local centres by local authorities. Information is critical to better development planning decisions through both local and regional processes.
DEFRA is seeking co-operation from other Departments over how to ensure that the information sources, underpinned by volunteer effort, are funded in a sustainable way.