Bern Convention Report
Invertebrates Group of Experts Meeting, May 2003
UK Report
BERN Species
Eight invertebrate species listed in the Bern Appendices occur
in the UK, one of which Helix pomatia is an ancient
introduction and has, until now, had no specific conservation
action targeted at it. Recent concerns about commercial collecting
for human consumption have led to the proposal that H.
pomatia be protected by legislation.
Two burnet moths: Zygaena lonicerae subspecies
jocelynae and Zygaena loti subspecies
scotica should be given full protection which will prevent
collection and sale of adults and early stages;
The Roman snail Helix pomatia should be given partial
protection to prevent collection and sale; captive bred stocks
would need sale licensing
Biodiversity: the UK Action Plan published in 1994
established the fundamental principles for future biodiversity
conservation in the UK. These were:
Partnership - action involving the mutual co-operation of
statutory, voluntary, academic and business sectors at both
national and local levels.
Targets - the establishment of measurable outcomes that
address the needs of species and habitat types of most concern to
biodiversity conservation.
Policy Integration - recognise that shifts in policy are
needed to reverse the decline in the UK biodiversity resource and
to support sustainable development in all sectors of society.
Information - while sound science and knowledge should
underpin decisions, recognise that new approaches are required to
fill information gaps and understanding and to manage the
information already available more efficiently.
Public Awareness- public understanding and action is needed to
support the changes needed to maintain biodiversity.
A key element of the work under this programme has been the
implementation of species and habitat action plans.
Species Action Plans have been prepared for 288 invertebrate
species and 28 species statements prepared for those species about
which little is currently known. A
review of
progress against targets was undertaken in 2002.
Translocation Policy Reviews
Three policy documents reviewing different aspects of
biological translocations were published in 2003.
The National Biodiversity Network (NBN) continues to develop
it's key areas of activity, standard setting, linking and using
data and information.
Four elements of the NBN are outlined here:
The NBN Gateway is a web site that shows how multiple sources
of biodiversity information can be accessed and used over the
Internet. The site now contains over 10 million species records, as
well as various sources of habitat records and the boundaries of
the protected sites in the UK. Currently, the main areas of
functionality are:
- ten kilometre dot mapping;
- interactive mapping;
- show species recorded within protected sites;
- search across selected biodiversity web sites for relevant
information.
Recorder 2002 is designed to be a flexible tool. It
offers a complete system from data capture through to reports,
along with excellent mapping facilities. It is also designed to
work in partnership with a variety of other packages from
spreadsheets for data entry, to GIS packages for spatial analysis.
It is compatible with a number of the data capture tools used by
the recording community and can therefore collate records coming
from many different sources.
This is an umbrella programme designed to house all taxon
conservation status assessment work – it provides a mechanism to
appraise, approve and publish conservation status. The programme
works through a number of taxon specific expert groups, membership
of which is be drawn from across the invertebrate conservation
community. The programme:
- assigns Red List status to species based on the 2001 IUCN
criteria
- determines species of conservation concern within the UK
- keeps track of international conservation status
- assigns native/non native status
The Biological Records Centre (BRC) based at the Centre for
Ecology and Hydrology (Monks Wood) is co-funded by JNCC and the
Natural Environment Research Council (NERC). Seven invertebrate
distribution atlases have been published in the last two
years:
- Aculeate Hymenoptera (parts 3 & 4)
- Provisional atlas of British hoverflies (Diptera,
Syrphidae)
- British spiders (Arachnida, Araneae), Volumes 1 & 2
- Provisional atlas of the British aquatic bugs (Hemiptera,
Heteroptera)
- Provisional atlas of the Cantharoidea and Buprestoidea
(Coleoptera) of Britain and Ireland
The Butterfly Monitoring Scheme (BMS) is co-funded by CEH and
JNCC. It comprises over 120 sites where weekly transect counts of
adult butterflies are made for 26 weeks per year. It was
established in 1976 and has continued to develop in collaboration
with NGO's and volunteers throughout the UK. The scheme aims
to:
provide information at regional and national levels on changes
in the abundance of individual species of butterfly and to detect
trends which may indicate changes in their status;
- provide a reliable long-term reference against which population
changes of species studied on other sites or in other countries can
be compared;
- monitor changes at individual sites and, by comparison with
results elsewhere, to assess the impact of local factors such as
habitat change caused by management;
- provide information on aspects of population ecology and
phenology of individual species, both in relation to the effect of
environmental changes (including climate change), and as a
contribution to basic knowledge.
- The BMS is keen to collaborate with schemes in other European
countries to further develop butterfly monitoring at a European
scale.
Joint Nature Conservation Committee, Monkstone House, City Road,
Peterborough, PE1 1JY, UK.
www.jncc.gov.uk