Long-Term Biological Monitoring

Local environmental projects open for funding

The Nature Commission is launching an exciting new programme to gather strong, scientific ecological data that will power key projects within the States of Guernsey 2020 Strategy for Nature. This vital work is happening in close partnership with the States of Guernsey, the Guernsey Biological Records Centre, and a network of passionate environmental organisations across the island.

Because, as the saying goes — we can’t manage what we don’t measure. The recent State of Nature 2024 report highlights that a critical barrier to protecting and enhancing our environment is the lack of reliable data. By filling this gap, we’re equipping decision-makers with the evidence they need to safeguard Guernsey’s natural treasures for generations to come.

Overview

How to Support this Project

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

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

Project Information

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.

Funding needed

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

Which UN Sustainable Development Goals does this Project contribute to?

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

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