Putting Manx wildlife on the map!

Since 2010 the Manx Biological Recording Partnership has worked hard to establish a unified database of wildlife records which is held on the Isle of Man Government Network

Considerable quantities of biodiversity records have been collected in the Isle of Man over many years, going back to the 19th century, by many individuals and organisations. Data sets have also been gathered as part of research projects and environmental impact assessments for the Isle of Man Government.

In the 1990s the Government commissioned habitat surveys of the whole Island as well as detail surveys of designated sites and this has formed a vital baseline dataset of species and habitats. The wildlife records of Manx National Heritage, Manx Wildlife Trust and DEFA were combined into a single Recorder6 biological recording database which is used by the three organisations for conservation management and planning.

ManxBirdlife hold an extensive avian database collected initially for its published Manx Bird Atlas. Manx Birdlife (MBL) submits its non-avian records to the Partnership but all avian data is held on their own separate database. MBL use the British Ornithologists Union's The British List for all its 8.5 million records. This taxanomic list is not currently used by the NBN Atlas. MBL gathers all the bird data for the island and provides data to other Partner organisations for research and analysis and to consultancies for EIA reports.

Other organisations, listed here, such as Manx Basking Shark Watch, Manx Bat Group, IOM Fungus Group and Manx Whale and Dolphin Watch have considerable species datasets. We work with them and individual recorders to make the data available and to keep on top of 'data flows' (see more here).

The Partnership was formed under the auspices of the Manx Nature Conservation Forum and continues to report regularly to the Forum.

In 2017 the Partnership developed the NBN Atlas Isle of Man. This allows the public to see all the wildlife records that we hold but at a low resolution (1km) or lower for sensitive species. It also enables Isle of Man species be accutately recorded on distribution maps in published atlases which is importnat for the scientific research of populations and to aid conservation of rare species.

We strive towards having the functions and providing the services set out by the National Biodiversity Network (NBN) for Local Records Centres and the Association for Local Records Centres (ALERC) although with limited resources we can only do our best to follow the guidelines as published on their websites.

National Biodiveristy Network ALERC