It’s often said that a picture is worth a thousand words. This is as true when interpreting environmental data as at any other time. Biodiversity data can sometimes be daunting and inaccessible in its raw format, but thoughtful presentation can make it a highly useful resource for a wide variety of audiences.
GiGL’s Board of Directors are central to our work and our success. Their commitment and expertise helps guide GiGL and keeps us moving forward and developing. Directors are on the front line of biodiversity and open space work in the capital. They are GiGL service users and contribute to our data banks, as well as serving as ambassadors for GiGL.
It is central to GiGL’s philosophy that we don’t work in isolation. This philosophy also applies to our governance. Last year, we invited contacts to join a new combined “GiGL Advisory Panel” giving us an even wider range of industry knowledge and expertise.
Having produced numerous reports for screening planning proposals over the last 20 years, GiGL is in a unique position to analyse how well boroughs are meeting their biodiversity screening duties. With this in mind, and hoping we can assist them in improving the efficiency of this process, we have started a new planning project.
CIEEM requires its members to share data with records centres. Yet in many cases this is not happening. Should ecologists, developers or records centres be concerned? A group of Build UK members teamed up with GiGL, ALERC, and The Ecology Consultancy to investigate why more wildlife information is not currently being shared, and to find a solution.
Working in association with CIEEM and ALERC, the National Biodiversity Network has created the consultants portal to address the lack of a standard sharing process for biological records collected by environmental consultants.
Interpreting data has always been part of the suite of services the GiGL team offers, as has presenting data on maps, and who doesn’t love a good map?Recently, we have been captivated by the power and beauty of data infographics and have started dipping our toes into other visualisation opportunities.
A housing development company has become the first to be prosecuted by the Metropolitan Police Service for destroying a bat roost. Unhappy with the outcome of an ecological survey, C&WD asked the ecologists to change the probability of use by roosting bats to low.
Recently, we have made a major change to our data search process and are now working in partnership with eCountability, an external agency set up by Bill Butcher, formerly of Somerset Environmental Records Centre. Bill and his team will deliver our data search reports for us. The reports are essentially the same as they were but are now streamlined …
It is with no small sense of frustration that when LISI’s funding ended earlier this year, we were unable to secure further external funding to maintain Karen’s role as project manager in the long term. Karen has had to leave us for pastures new whilst the wider LISI business group consider our next steps.