Specialist species groups

Dear Ms Davies,

I will pass your enqiry onto t

show quoted sections

Sue McQueen would like to recall the message, "Freedom of Information request - Specialist species groups".

show quoted sections

Dear Ms Davies,

I will pass your enqiry onto the relevant team and we will provide you with a response as soon as possible.

Yours Sincerely

Sue McQueen

show quoted sections

Dear Susan

You email about species groups has been sent to me as the manager of the UK BAP project in JNCC.

Conservation action in the UK is now devolved and the four countries are busy developing structures to deal with the new UK list of priority species and habitats to which you refer. Specialist species groups may well be one of these structures but the countries are setting up their own structures largely independently of each other (although they are aware of what is being proposed in each country).

To find out more about what the countries are doing please contact the following people who are the country representatives at the Biodiversity Reporting and Information Group which coordinated the identification of the species and habitats on the UK list.

England - Ruth Waters mailto:[email address]
Scotland - Greg Mudge mailto:[email address]
Wales - Liz Howe mailto:[email address]
Northern Ireland - Richard Weyl mailto:[email address]

Hope this helps

Best wishes

Ant

show quoted sections

Hi Susan

In the past, priority UK BAP species were managed by Lead Partners who may or may not have set up steering groups to help them. Lead Partners came from a range of statutory organisations and NGOs and were listed on the UK BAP website (see this link http://www.ukbap.org.uk/GenPageText.aspx...).

These people were responsible for the conservation action of these UK BAP species. JNCC coordinated the three yearly reports on progress with these species and these reports can be found on the reporting menu at this link http://www.ukbap.org.uk/ and also on the BARS website http://www.ukbap-reporting.org.uk/.

Hope this helps

Ant

show quoted sections

Hi Susan

Sorry about this. Your original email that was forwarded to me stated species of conservation concern which often refers to the UK BAP project which I manage. Your email clarified that this is not what you are referring to and I have forwarded your request to the appropriate group in JNCC. They will reply to you direct.

Sorry for the confusion.

If you do not get a reply with a few days or so please email me back.

Best wishes

Ant

show quoted sections

Dear Ms Davies,

Thanks you for your email to Ant Maddock of 10th October, following up his response to your original request for information made on 2nd October, 2008. I'm sorry the response did not answer your questions fully. The correspondence you refer to between yourself and Chris Syde in SNH was helpful in clarifying that your request relates to an interest in species taxonomy and, accordingly, the information provided below addresses this.

As advised in our response to your separate request for information to JNCC made on 22nd September, 2008, JNCC does not act as a taxonomic authority and uses the NBN Dictionary for all taxonomic groups.

In recent years the only specialist species group that reported to JNCC was the Vascular Plants Species Status Assessment group. The group was established to contribute to the Species Status Assessment project, of which the main outputs are Red Lists and Red Data Books. JNCC's principal role in the Species Status Assessment project is to ensure that IUCN criteria and standards have been correctly applied to GB species data. IUCN criteria and standards do not refer to taxonomy.

The Vascular Plants Species Status Assessment group was set up in February 2003 and in 2005 JNCC published the main output of the group, The Vascular Plant Red Data List for Great Britain. JNCC also holds the minutes of the group meetings. The group last met in November 2006. The initial terms of reference are attached. Production of Red Lists and Red Data books for other taxonomic groups is undertaken under contract or independently by learned societies (for instance, the British Lichen Society maintains the conservation status listings of lichens).

There are two other types of species groups with which JNCC is associated as follows:

* Groups were set up during the UK BAP Priority Species Review process and are dealt with in our earlier reply from Ant Maddock.

* There are a number of Inter-Agency Working Groups e.g. the Plant Conservation Working Group, which deal with species conservation issues. In some instances, taxonomic issues are raised at these groups with regard to species of conservation concern, however, these groups do not make conclusions regarding taxonomy. The Inter-Agency Working Groups are answerable to a group comprising the Chief Scientists of the UK nature conservation bodies (Natural England, Scottish Natural Heritage Countryside, the Countryside Council for Wales and the Northern Ireland Environment Agency) and the JNCC's Science Director. Membership of the inter-agency groups is drawn from the same organisations but varies from group to group, hence JNCC attends some but not all of the groups. Similarly the organisation varies between groups; the Plant Conservation Working Group is chaired by each organisation by rotation. Unfortunately we do not hold terms of reference for the Plant Conservation Working group but the agenda for the next meeting is attached to indicate the types of issues dealt with by this group.

I hope this information meets your requirements

Yours Sincerely

Sue McQueen
<<IPCWG Oct 08.doc>> <<Plant SSA gp.doc>>

show quoted sections