Assisting conservation

The National Biodiversity Data Centres works to protect Ireland’s pollinators. One third of our wild bee species are threatened with extinction from Ireland. The All-Ireland Pollinator Plan is about all of us, from farmers to local authorities, to schools, gardeners and businesses, coming together to try to create an island where pollinators can survive and thrive. The Protecting Farmland Pollinators Project is an European Innovation Partnership (EIP) project funded by the Department of Agriculture, Food, and the Marine (DAFM) which aims to promote pollinators and biodiversity in general on Irish farms.

Invasive species are non-native species that have been introduced by human activities, outside their natural range and that have the ability to threaten our native wildlife, cause damage to our environment, economy and/or human health. The National Biodiversity Data Centre works with other groups to provide national co-ordination of data and information on Ireland’s invasive species, supporting the implementation of the EU Regulation on Invasive Alien Species.

Marine biodiversity is everything from our rocky shores, sandy bays to the deep sea bed, the ocean is home to many species of invertebrates, crustaceans, fish and mammals. The National Biodiversity Data Centre works to survey our marine habitats to enable us to better understand and protect our marine biodiversity. Explore Your Shore is a Citizen Science project funded by the Environmental Protection Agency focused on increasing our knowledge of the distribution of intertidal species, exploring their potential as bio-indicators of water quality and climate change, and highlighting actions that everyone can take to tackle water pollution and climate change.

An Taisce’s Legacy4LIFE Ponds for Biodiversity project aims to promote the establishment of a pond network across Ireland as a measure to help reverse biodiversity loss and mitigate climate change. The establishment of such a network would also have ecological and wider landscape benefits in the form of wildlife refuges for biodiversity as well as providing ecosystem services such as freshwater provision, flood control, groundwater recharge, and pollution amelioration, thereby playing a key role as a nature-based solution in national climate adaptation. In fact, ponds host more biodiversity than rivers and lakes, particularly macroinvertebrates and less common species. In addition, they provide a host of amenity benefits, including opportunities for recreation, education, improved health and wellbeing, and community participation.

Citizen science is systematic surveys carried out by members of the public who volunteer their time to collect data following a defined methodology. The National Biodiversity Data Centre run a variety of citizen science initiatives to track changes in different aspects of biodiversity in the wider countryside.

Everyone has the opportunity to become a citizen scientist by joining our recording community. Becoming a citizen scientist allows you to increase your scientific knowledge, contribution national and global datasets and become a part of the decision making process.

Biodiversity indicators reflect the current state, and change in state, of verifiable data that relate to biodiversity. The types of data that relate to biodiversity include direct measures e.g. the number of endangered species and habitats, and indirect measures e.g. the number of biodiversity related policies implemented. This information provides an important source of evidence for reporting on biodiversity change, conservation action and informing conservation policy at national, European and international levels. The National Biodiversity Data Centre has responsibility for the development, collation and publication of the National Biodiversity Indicators.

The Irish Vegetation Classification is a project which aims to classify, describe and map in detail all aspects of natural and semi-natural vegetation in Ireland within a single, unified framework.

You can explore the current classification and access synopses of the 186 defined communities. You can also classify your own vegetation data using the dedicated web application, ERICA.

In 2010, as part of the initiative to review the State of Knowledge on Ireland’s Biological Diversity the National Biodiversity Data Centre produced an inventory of sources of biodiversity data.  The inventory was developed by inviting recognised national experts to contribute their knowledge of progress with building the knowledge base around different taxonomic groups, based on the following questions:

• Is there a published checklist?
• Have basic surveys been carried out?
• Is there a national database?
• Has a national conservation assessment been completed?
• Are there monitoring systems in place?
• Are there capacity building requirements?
• Are there other knowledge gaps?