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The virtual world places a vast collection of information about the natural world at your fingertips.
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Detailed maps on SNHi allow you to explore millions of wildlife records from across Scotland.
The dusty filing cabinets and rain- soaked notebooks in which we used to collect data on habitats, species, landscapes and the other aspects of our work are, for the most part, gone. It’s now an electronic world of servers, databases and applications. But we haven’t forgotten that the reason we collect all these facts and figures is to help us make decisions and ensure that what we say is based on the best and most up-to-date information. We’re also working with other public bodies and volunteers to share what we know about the natural world. You can now search through SNH’s wealth of data and information on our website at
www.snh.org.uk/snhi. Anyone in the world with internet access can easily find what they require on a wide range of topics. The service most widely used by our web visitors is Sitelink. You’ll find information there about all of our protected areas – sites of special scientific interest (SSSIs), national nature reserves (NNRs), special protection areas (SPAs) and the rest. Getting our SSSI series into good condition is one of the Government’s key targets, so it’s vital that we have a common understanding of why these special places are so important, and that we share that knowledge with key partners.
Facts and Figures provides updates on what we’re working on, such as the sites we’ve notified, the grants given, licences granted and many other
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Technology has transformed the way we hold and manage information about the natural world.
aspects of our work. It provides a better service to the public than the version we used to publish every year and costs less to produce.
Using our interactive mapping tool, you can explore around six million plant and animal records from across Scotland. These sightings come directly from the National Biodiversity Network, and the number of records is being added to every day. This is an amazing resource collected by many thousands of volunteer naturalists over many decades. It helps SNH, public bodies and land managers across Scotland to make well-informed judgements about land management issues. Natural Spaces allows us to share our mapping products. We’ve made a big investment in this type of data over the years and we see it as an important resource that other organisations – such as planning authorities – can use. For example, they can use it to help with planning applications or preparing environmental assessments. It’s also available at no cost to schools, universities or developers who want to know more about the natural features of the countryside. A new directive from the European Union will shortly become law that will mean all public authorities have to make their mapping available to the public, so this will help us comply with the new law. SNH are constantly looking to find new and more engaging ways of communicating our wealth of information to anyone who wants to access it. SNHi will continue to develop and we’ll add more content as it becomes available. But there will always be the need to deal with wider issues under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act and the Environmental Information Regulations (Scotland). We receive many hundreds of requests for information each year and we try to deal with them all in an open and transparent manner. The Scottish Information Commissioner, Kevin Dunion, commented in a recent article that, “
...the SNHi portal is a great example of how a public agency can give wider public access to its information resources.” So log on and give it a try!
www.snh.gov.uk 9
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