Public expenditure on measures to promote biodiversity has been cut in real terms over recent years. As a result, levels of monitoring have been scaled back, and the capacity for assessing the state of protected areas and vulnerable species nationally has been reduced. Government bodies do not have enough skilled ecologists to provide comprehensive expert monitoring, and these bodies are over-reliant on the voluntary sector to fill the gaps which arise. Currently, local authorities do not hav...

Public expenditure on measures to promote biodiversity has been cut in real terms over recent years. As a result, levels of monitoring have been scaled back, and the capacity for assessing the state of protected areas and vulnerable species nationally has been reduced. Government bodies do not have enough skilled ecologists to provide comprehensive expert monitoring, and these bodies are over-reliant on the voluntary sector to fill the gaps which arise. Currently, local authorities do not have enough in-house ecologists to provide the monitoring which is expected to underpin the Government’s policy on biodiversity net gain. Type: conclusion | Number: 11 | Paragraph: 80 | Response status: under_consideration Government response: There are a number of bodies responsible for monitoring biodiversity, and this includes an extensive range of species surveillance schemes and Earth Observation services operated as partnership programmes by the Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC). We v