Up

Biodiversity


Conservation

"Conservation is the study of the loss of Earth’s biological diversity and the ways this loss can be prevented. Biological diversity, or biodiversity, is the variety of life either in a particular place or on the entire planet Earth, including its ecosystems, species, populations, and genes. Conservation thus seeks to protect life’s variety at all levels of biological organization." (Britannica)

"The UK Biodiversity Action Plan (UK BAP) was published in 1994, and was the UK Government’s response to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), which the UK signed up to in 1992 in Rio de Janeiro. The CBD called for the development and enforcement of national strategies and associated action plans to identify, conserve and protect existing biological diversity, and to enhance it wherever possible." (JNCC)

Approaches to the recording and publishing of conservation data differ in England, Scotland, and Wales. Increasingly though, this is an area where open data is the order of the day. OpenLayers is a tool capable of joining up some of the data, three pillars of which are species, habitat, and sites.


Protected Species

UK BAP Priority Species are those that were identified as being the most threatened and requiring conservation action under the UK Biodiversity Action Plan. Under devolution separate lists are maintained for England, Scotland and Wales.

The Report on the Species and Habitat Review (UK BAP) from JNCC includes a downloadable spreadsheet of protected species. Scientific names and commonly used synonyms derive from the Nameserver facility of the UK Species Dictionary, which is managed by the Natural History Museum, a simplified extract of which can be obtained here.

As an example of what may done with OpenLayers consider Breeding and Wintering Birds.


Priority Habitat

UK BAP Priority Habitats are those that were identified as being the most threatened and requiring conservation action under the UK Biodiversity Action Plan. Under devolution separate lists are maintained for England, Scotland and Wales.

There are a number of Terrestrial habitat classification schemes. The countries of Great Britain are not particularly coordinated in their approach. But Scotland has been following a European unification initiative.

Treatment of the principal habitat data in OpenLayers:
Other data pertaining to habitat (so far):

Designated Sites

Naturenet has an interesting overview of this subject.

Natural England has an online Site search app for sites in England.
NatureScot's online SiteLink provides access to data and information on key protected areas across Scotland.
Natural Resources Wales publishes details of Types of protected areas and help to Find protected areas in Wales.

Nature conservation designations in OpenLayers:
Landscape designations in OpenLayers:
European and international designations in OpenLayers:
Local designations in OpenLayers:

Up