Local environmental projects open for funding

Long-Term Biological Monitoring

The Project

The Nature Commission is developing a programme of robust, scientific, ecological data collection to inform various workstreams under the States of Guernsey 2020 Strategy for Nature. This will be done in partnership with the States of Guernsey and the Guernsey Biological Records Centre, as well as various environmental organisations across Guernsey. We can't manage what we don't measure, and as identified in State of Nature 2024, a lack of data is one of the key limitations to protecting and enhancing our natural environment through evidence-based decision making.

Overview

The development of a Long-Term Biological Monitoring Programme has been initiated following the release of State of Nature 2024. As identified in this report, a lack of data is one of the key limitations to protecting and enhancing our natural environment through evidence-based decision making.

This project will partner with the States of Guernsey, the Guernsey Biological Records Centre, and other on-island environmental organisations to improve the biological evidence-base.

To-date, the project has undertaken stakeholder engagement, to better understand the priority areas for data collection within each habitat and species group across marine, terrestrial, and freshwater environments.

Next steps will be:

  • Complete stakeholder engagement
  • Liaise with the States of Guernsey to further refine the priority areas for biological data collection
  • Develop resources, such as ID guides and data collection methods, to enable citizen science uptake through the community
  • Develop robust, scientific survey methods to collect biological data that cannot be appropriately collected through citizen science.

Ultimately, this project will build the evidence-base to enable informed decision making about our natural environment by individuals, communities, businesses, and the government.

It it estimate that this project will require approximately £30,000 per year.

This will cover the following costs:

  • coordination and implementation of citizen science projects, including resource development and training
  • creation of resources, such as ID guides, to better enable biological recording by the public
  • development of robust, scientific surveys to enable the collection of data that cannot be appropriately collected through citizen science
  • equipment needed for surveying
  • additional expertise as needed
  • sampling collection and analysis

This project helps to progress against the following UN Sustainable Development Goals:

  • #9 industry, innovation and infrastructure
  • #11 sustainable cities and communities
  • #12 responsible consumption and production
  • #13 climate action
  • #14 life below water
  • #15 life on land

The Nature Commission is a Guernsey charity that works with business, government, the third sector, and the public to enhance the Island's natural environment and promote greater native biodiversity. In particular, the Nature Commission is working to reverse the decline in biodiversity by protecting and enhancing Guernsey's natural environment for the health of our economy and well-being of our island community.

For more information visit Nature Commission Guernsey

To support this project, please contact: office@naturecommission.gg

Outcomes

  • Biodiversity assessment - enables populations to be tracked, changes over time to be monitored, vulnerable species to be identified, and informs conservation efforts
  • Ecosystem health - improves knowledge of the state of species and habitats locally, and what is impacting them
  • Invasive species - informs success of invasive species eradication/ management efforts
  • Evidence-based decision-making- the availability of accurate and accessible data enables individuals, communities, businesses, and the government to make decisions that are rooted in evidence 
  • Cost-effectiveness - allows for more efficient allocation of resources by targeting interventions based on biological needs or threats
  • Risk assessment - biological data helps to predict species population, habitat, or ecosystem collapse, as well as other aspects such the spread of invasive species
  • Supports regulation and legislation- biological evidence informs laws and policies on environmental protection, ensuring that the services we rely on are maintained into the future
  • Global coordination - shared biological datasets support international agreements like the Convention on Biological Diversity or the Paris Agreement on climate change
  • Environmental awareness - data visualising biodiversity decline can motivate sustainable behaviours in the public
  • Community engagement - citizen science projects using biological data promote stewardship and localised action
  • Climate adaptation - improving the database can help shape climate-resilient land and water use policies and enable more informed and effective use of nature-based solutions

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