The Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC) is the
statutory adviser to Government on UK and international nature
conservation. Its work contributes to maintaining and enriching
biological diversity, conserving geological features and sustaining
natural systems.
JNCC delivers the UK and international responsibilities of the
Council for Nature Conservation and the Countryside (CNCC), the
Countryside Council for Wales (CCW), Natural England, and Scottish
Natural Heritage (SNH). The functions that arise from these
responsibilities are principally to:
- advise Government on the development and implementation
of policies for, or affecting, nature conservation in the UK and
internationally;
- provide advice and disseminate knowledge on nature conservation
issues affecting the UK and internationally;
- establish common standards throughout the UK for nature
conservation, including monitoring, research, and the analysis of
results;
- commission or support research which it deems relevant to these
functions.
The Committee comprises 14 members: a Chairman and five
independent members appointed by the Secretary of State; the
Chairman of CNCC; the Chairmen or deputy Chairmen of CCW, Natural
England and SNH; and one other member from each of these
bodies.
JNCC, originally established under the Environmental
Protection Act 1990, was reconstituted by the Natural Environment
and Rural Communities Act 2006. Support is provided to the JNCC by
a company limited by guarantee (JNCC Support Co) that the Committee
established in 2005.
The British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) promotes and
encourages the wider understanding, appreciation and conservation
of birds through scientific studies using the combined skills and
enthusiasm of its members, other birdwatchers and staff. A key
element of BTO's approach is the synergistic combination of unpaid
contributions of the time and expertise of over 12,000 members and
other volunteers, with the professional skills of trained
staff.
In pursuit of its aims, the Trust seeks to: maintain high
scientific and professional standards in all its activities;
co-operate with others engaged in relevant research; work
constructively with those whose activities impinge upon the
conservation of birds and their environment; and ensure that its
projects widen participants' experience, knowledge and
understanding of birds as well as providing enjoyment.
Co-operation between JNCC (and its predecessor bodies) and BTO
has been long and particularly fruitful. JNCC and the country
agencies have used data and information collected by thousands of
BTO members to promote the conservation of sites and habitats of
importance for bird conservation throughout Britain, as well as to
highlight the specific needs of individual species. More detailed
research has been undertaken to investigate conservation problems
and to suggest solutions.
As well as applying the results generated by BTO, JNCC
contributes its conservation expertise to the Partnership, thus
helping to ensure that the work addresses priority issues. BTO
contributes not only the fieldwork of the volunteers but also both
the ornithological and ecological expertise of its staff and
members and the experience that it has of organising large-scale
surveys, collating the data, and analysing the results. Both
Partners contribute to the costs.
The BTO/JNCC Partnership overlaps with Partnerships
responsible for the Breeding Bird Survey (with RSPB) and the
Wetland Bird Survey (with WWT and RSPB).
This report covers BTO work under the Partnership during
2001-02, including much collation and analysis of studies for which
the fieldwork was undertaken in previous years. The two main
sections of the report present the chief conclusion drawn from the
Partnership's programme in 2001/02 (Section B) and the means by
which the work was delivered (Section C).
Under each programme, we state when we delivered those reports
that are formally required under the contract underlying the
Partnership but do not list the many other reports made as part of
the continuous dialogue of the Partnership. Formal publications are
listed in Section D.
Foot-and-Mouth Disease
The BTO suspended fieldwork immediately the FMD outbreak was
confirmed; a notice was immediately posted on its website and by
the end of the first weekend all Regional Representatives had been
contacted; advice to members was given in BTO News. The overall
policy subsequently developed was to suspend completely those
surveys for which gaps in coverage would render the results largely
useless but to allow fieldwork on other projects in those areas of
the country free of the disease, provided that the Regional
Representative in the area was content that BTO work should go
ahead there, that the landowners and tenants of both the surveyed
site and adjacent land were content, and that recommended
biosecurity measures were taken. We ensured that all activities
complied with Government guidelines. BTO and JNCC staff liaised
actively throughout the outbreak.
No significant problems were reported and we are grateful both
to the volunteer fieldworks and to landowners for handling a
difficult situation so well.
There were, of course, significant impacts on the work
programme. Coverage of many surveys was seriously affected (see
specific sections below). This results in some time being saved
during the later part of the year because there were fewer data to
process, which compensated for the extra time involved in liaising
with the volunteers and with managing partial coverage of the
surveys.
Thanks to volunteers
We are grateful to the many volunteers who contribute so much
to the conservation of wildlife in the UK by participating in the
BTO/JNCC work programme. The time they spend on fieldwork alone is
the equivalent certainly of many hundreds of full-time staff,
probably of a few thousand. We particularly thank the BTO Regional
Representatives who, also in a purely voluntary capacity, organise
the fieldwork at local level.