Establishing a Biological Records System on St Helena
The BEST 2.0+ program funded the establishment of the biological recording system for St Helena (SA-2020-91). This project began in July 2021 and was completed February 2023. This project aimed to develop a centralised online biological recording system for St Helena. The initial focus of the start-up project was to establish all existing terrestrial invertebrate and plant records on the centralized system. Through the project we would set up a web-based interface and App (Record St Helena) that would allow people to record and access invertebrate and plant records using a standardised recording protocol.
Project Importance
St Helena’s isolation for the past 14 million years has created a unique environment of flora and fauna. 94% of the British Endemic species lie within its Overseas Territories and of the 1,547 species, St Helena holds the majority of over 500 and rising.
The creation of iRecord St Helena provided the opportunity to record St Helena’s diverse wildlife, therefore enabling professionals and amateurs to submit records that will build on valuable biological datasets, increasing their value for analysis and interpretation over time.
Project Components
To create Record St Helena a stakeholder network had to be established compromised with local and international experts. The groups met bi-monthly to discuss details such as data standards and policy concerning biological data collection. The project officer was then responsible for prioritising datasets to use for building the baseline data for the biological records database.
An associated web-portal was constructed alongside the biological records database. Through the web-portal historical biological records and newly verified records created through iRecord St Helena could be viewed through different media, such as species distribution maps.
A Communications Strategy was developed. The document entailed how the St Helena Research Institute would manage communication activities to successfully deliver the the outcome of the BEST + project: Establishing a St Helena Biological Recording System. The success of the project, its sustainability and value to society depends on increasing the number of people contributing biological records to Record St Helena. Communication was therefore the key to success for the project. The purpose of this plan was to reach out and inspire people across the community to get involved in wildlife recording, adding new wildlife sightings to iRecord St Helena and to raise awareness and enable registered professional users to access the dataset for the purpose of analysis and interpretation.
BEST 2.0+ Statement
This BEST 2.0+ project received funding from the European Union. The objective of BEST 2.0+ was to promote the conservation of biodiversity and sustainable use of ecosystem services, including ecosystem based approach to climate change adaption and mitigation, in the Overseas Countries and Territories (OCTs).
BEST 2.0+ aimed to fulfil its objective by enabling, empowering and strengthening the local authorities and civil society organisations which were committed to local development, biodiversity conservation and sustainable use of ecosystem services in OCTs through the implementation of a grant scheme accompanied by capacity building activities.
BEST 2.0+ continues the EU BEST Initiative and is a direct follow up of the BEST 2.0+ Programme To learn more, visit https://www.best2plus.org
Disclaimer: This publication/website/video was produced with the financial support of the European Union. Its contents are the sole responsibility of The St Helena Research Institute and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union.
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