The NBN Concept
Background
Surprisingly, there has never been a statutory requirement for any one organisation to collect records on a long-term basis. Despite this a national Biological Records Centre was set up in 1964 to collate data, particularly from voluntary recording schemes, to make information available to conservation bodies and to publish the results. The lack of co-ordinated resources to work with local and national recorders resulted in no one organisation being able to see the whole picture. And as pressures to report on the environment increased so did the urgency to improve the situation.
The impetus to set up the NBN finally came from the Biodiversity Action Planning process, following the 1992 Rio Summit. Spurred on by a report from the “Co-ordinating Commission for Biological Recording”, the major organisations involved came together in 1997 to pool the resources necessary to set-up a project to build the NBN.
Founding organisations
Initial hopes that the Millennium Commission would support the NBN Project were not fulfilled, but the principal organisations, voluntary and government-sponsored, formed an informal consortium to carry the work forward. These founding organisations were:
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The Joint Nature Conservation Committee
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English Nature (now Natural England)
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The Natural History Museum
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Natural Environment Research Council (through its Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, home of the Biological Records Centre)
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Royal Society for the Protection of Birds
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The Wildlife Trusts
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National Federation for Biological Recording (representing local and voluntary sector recording communities especially)
These were joined by the
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Countryside Council for Wales
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Scottish Natural Heritage
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Environment Agency
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and the Marine Biological Association
The National Biodiversity Network Trust
The National Biodiversity Network Trust was set up as an independent charity in 2000 to oversee and facilitate the development of the Network. The Board of Trustees’ membership was made up from senior managers from the founding member organisations and this remained the case for the first five years. Since 2005 all members have the opportunity to become a Board member.
Initial work
From the outset, it was recognised that for the NBN to succeed there would need to be a raft of specific projects and activities:
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A standard data model to underpin the entire system.
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Data capture and collation software that could meet agreed standards.
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A common set of data exchange principles accepted by all participants.
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An internet-based system to allow data to be searched and delivered to users.
For the system to work, it became apparent that other things were needed as well:
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Development of standard taxonomic and habitat dictionaries to enable data to be indexed and searched.
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Guidance and help with issues related to confidentiality, personal or sensitive data and intellectual property rights, so that constraints on data use would be minimised.
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Help with improving the management of data so they could adopt the necessary formats.
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Help with understanding how to take part, and resources and encouragement to do so.
The NBN Trust’s approach was to set up a range of projects to take these areas of work forward in parallel, because each tended to be dependent on another:
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Production of an NBN Data Model and data exchange system (see data guidebook)
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Development of the NBN Gateway and search engine.
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Development of the electronic Species Dictionary and Habitats Dictionary.
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Production of guidance on practical issues concerning data exchange (see data guidebook).
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Projects to enhance the awareness and capabilities of the main potential suppliers of data, in particular local records centres and voluntary societies (see Business guidebook).
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Projects to look at developing the use of data (see Training pages).
Each of these work areas was developed under the guidance of steering groups representing all the main interested parties, both within the NBN Trust membership and outside, with the whole Project overseen by a full-time Chief Executive (originally Programme Director) and the NBN Trust Board of Trustees. Work on individual projects has been taken on by different partners, with the principal functions operating through NBN Trust funded staff at Scottish Natural Heritage, Joint Nature Conservation Committee, Natural England, Biological Records Centre and the NBN Trust.
Partnership and membership
Being part of the NBN
Many organisations are part of the NBN, but not all are members of the NBN. If you, or your organisation, contribute data or contribute time to specific projects, if you are actively involved in the NBN vision of “Making all biological records freely and easily available to everyone” you are considered to be part of the NBN.
Being a member of the NBN
Those organisations or individuals that are members of the NBN, have either contributed, and maintained their datasets on an ongoing basis, or they have contributed financially to the development of the NBN. The rights of each member depends on the level of membership held. Read more about membership