The UK BAP is being delivered by over 1500 organisations working on 436 priority species and habitat action plans at UK level, four country biodiversity strategies and programmes, and about 150 local BAPs. While this success in engaging partners into biodiversity conservation is a cause for celebration, it makes it difficult to assess both what is and is not being achieved at UK, country and local levels.
In 2001, it was recognised that this problem would be best addressed through a national system that met both the internal and external reporting needs of organisations. These needs were identified through an analysis of 10 existing or evolving reporting systems, which led to the development of a prototype database. This was tested with a number of LBAPs and Lead Partners, and a series of workshops was held to introduce the system and get on-the-spot feedback from potential users.
Having established users' needs, Netsquared Ltd was contracted in 2002 to develop a web-enabled version of the system. Initially, this led to the development of a desktop application, which can exchange data with a central server to enable integration and sharing of BAP information. This desktop application requires data to flow across corporate firewalls and, due to increasing security concerns leading to more stringent firewall rules, only some users have been able to use the desktop application since its launch in 2003.
The development of a fully web-based version of the application began in 2003 and the system was first released to users in September 2004. It is this system that you are using by accessing this website. This does not require access across corporate firewalls and so is available to all users. For the foreseeable future it has replaced the desktop application, which is no longer available.
BARS development is supported by a partnership led by Natural England working in association with the Countryside Council for Wales, Scottish Natural Heritage, the Wales Biodiversity Partnership, the Environment and Heritage Service, DEFRA and the Environment Agency. This partnership will continue to develop BARS to ensure that it meets the needs of its users.
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