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Aberdeenshire councillors to focus on work of North East Scotland Biological Records Centre


By Kyle Ritchie

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The work of the North East Scotland Biological Records Centre is to come under the spotlight.

Aberdeenshire Council's infrastructure services committee will meet online on Thursday and assess what the centre has carried out over the past three years and its strategy up to 2023.

North East Scotland Biological Records Centre (NESBReC) has the role of collating, managing and providing biological information for the region involving Aberdeenshire Council and other local authorities and organisations.

It is supported through an annual grant from Scottish Natural Heritage, which is now known as NatureScot, and a service level agreement with Aberdeen City Council.

Other funding is received through grants, project work and payment for biological data searches for private organisations.

A review of the 2017-20 strategy has been undertaken to assess the key priorities and outcomes achieved by NESBReC over the last three years.

North East Scotland Biological Records Centre keeps an extensive record of nature in the region.
North East Scotland Biological Records Centre keeps an extensive record of nature in the region.

In the report from NESBReC co-ordinator Glenn Roberts that will go before councillors on the committee it outlined that over the past three years the first key priority was to maintain, develop and expand, sustainably, the biological database for the north-east of Scotland to ensure data is available for the management and promotion of the area’s natural environment.

The report said: "212,518 new records were added to the NESBReC database with the majority of records being submitted from the general public on a voluntary basis."

The second key priority was to deliver habitat and species surveys of, designated species, under recorded species, invasive non-native species, pollinator species and priority habitats to support the work of North East Scotland Biodiversity Partnership and the biodiversity duty of those local authorities contributing to NESBReC.

The report said: "NESBReC responded to requests for biodiversity data from Aberdeenshire Council in support of its biodiversity duty, including searches of 8142 Aberdeenshire Council planning applications.

"Habitat survey work was also carried out in Aberdeenshire and Aberdeen City to build up data on the biodiversity of potential future development areas and increase data held for local nature conservation sites."

Another key priority was to promote the centre and biological recording throughout the north-east as a volunteering opportunity for all particularly in under recorded and regeneration priority areas. The report outlined that the centre had organised annual programmes of training days and an annual Recorders’ Forum event. It had also worked with other organisations during their events and improved its website and social media presence.

The final key priority was to develop and improve further links with other local record centres and national recording schemes, while also providing input and support to the Scottish Biodiversity Information Forum (SBIF) review.

The report stated: "Large datasets were shared with other national recording schemes, significantly the Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland and Butterfly Conservation. The NESBReC co-ordinator has participated in the Scottish Biodiversity Information Forum’s 'Review of the Biological Recording Infrastructure of Scotland', sitting on the SBIF Advisory Group as the representative for Scottish local record centres throughout the strategy period."

Looking forward councillors will also assess the centre's strategy for the next three years.

It outlines the core objectives of management, protection and promotion of biological records for north-east Scotland.

The key priorities look to build on those from the previous strategy and will explore further alternative sources of income for the centre, including working with other local record centres to ensure the service continues to operate in an efficient and sustainable manner.

It has outlined four strategic aims which are to manage biodiversity information; protect and enhance biodiversity; promotion of the biodiversity of the natural environment; and to continuously improve.

The strategy also takes into account the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

The report said: "The NESBReC strategy has also been produced taking into consideration the effects of the council’s and other funders’ expenditure in dealing with Covid-19, although it is assumed in terms of the staffing budget for NESBReC there are no significant changes planned."

The allocated staffing budget for 2020-21 was £93,883 and £25,000 for travel, administration, supplies and services costs. Estimated external income for the year is due to be £61,393 from grants including from NatureScot, which will be £40,473, a service level agreement with Aberdeen City Council, project work and payment for biological data searches for private organisations. The annual contribution from Aberdeenshire Council is due to be £22,000 for core and project work that is to be undertaken.

As part of the strategy a public consultation will be held, particularly focusing on how best to recruit young people.

The committee is being recommended to acknowledge the work of the centre over the past three years and agree the new strategy, which will take it up to 2023.


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