A major barrier to nature recovery is that the data needed to plan and measure wildlife conservation projects are often inaccessible. Wildlife records collected by naturalists over many decades (if not centuries!) are frequently siloed away in notebooks, spreadsheets and buried in organisational archives – unseen, unknown and unused. Without sharing and safeguarding these essential data resources, they cannot contribute to national nature recovery, and in many cases, risk being lost forever.

The NBN Trust promotes the collection, sharing and use of biodiversity data to support UK nature recovery. Through our NBN Atlas, we provide public access to data from over 188 partner organisations, including wildlife conservation charities, recording schemes, local environmental records centres and individuals. With over 304 million records of over 51,000 species, the NBN Atlas is an essential public resource for understanding the UK’s wildlife and a vital tool supporting nature’s recovery.