The inquiry into taxonomy and systematic biology by the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee found that the discipline is in crisis and more needs to be done to ensure the future health of the discipline. Following the inquiry the committee recommended that NERC undertake a study to identify opportunities for improving the prospects of the profession. This study has now been published accompanied by a strategy to ensure sustainability of the profession in the long term.

The review was in three main parts; the current status and trends in taxonomy including research into funding sources, the numbers of taxonomists, trends in the numbers, sources of young skilled staff and gaps in taxonomic expertise, future needs in taxonomy including identification of the elements of NERC’s strategy ‘Next Generation Science for Planet Earth’ that will require taxonomic knowledge, elements of taxonomy that could attract research council funding and elements of taxonomic work requiring the most funding for development, and finally an assessment of operational requirements. Accompanying the review a set of strategic recommendations for the future development of taxonomy and systematic in the UK was also published.

The report found that there are around 1100 active taxonomists in the UK, over half of whom are involved in identification of specimens working in industry, government and academia. Surprisingly they found no evidence for an aging skills base within the professional taxonomy sector, however there is some evidence that the skills base is aging in the voluntary sector. Taxonomists involved in descriptive, delimiting and revisionary studies are not being replaced by universities, leading to a decline in overall numbers. Funding for taxonomic studies comes from a variety of sources both national and international including government departments. Worryingly universities are failing to provide suitably trained graduates and postgraduates for jobs in the commercial biostratigraphy and environmental consultancy sectors. Importantly the study found that although voluntary taxonomists are important for the delivery of government policy they cannot replace professionals.

The review led to a list of over 20 recommendations being published which will ensure that the profession of taxonomy will remain sustainable into the future. These include:
1. Development of a UK Taxonomy Co-ordination Committee (TCC) to review the National Strategy in Taxonomy and Systematics, and monitor levels of investment in taxonomy.
2. A study should be undertaken to determine whether the distribution of the UK’s taxonomic collections is the most efficient for today’s needs
3. As part of a co-ordinated global programme major taxonomic organisations should take the responsibility for leading the provision of resources for particular taxa.
4. NERC should continue to support PhD training in taxonomy and assess the consequences of its recent decision to stop supporting taught masters.
5. NERC should explore whether lack of training opportunities is the reason for the difficulty in recruiting trained taxonomists by environmental consultancies and the skill deficit in micropalaeontology.
6. Provision of small grants for volunteer scientists and recognition of their contributions by learned societies and other bodies should be encouraged.
7. The TCC should bring together the UK taxonomic community to list and prioritise time-limited major research programmes or “grand challenges” that would advance UK taxonomy and systematics.
8. NERC and BBSRC (and where relevant MRC) should ensure their support of taxonomy is coordinated and complementary.

The House of Lords Science and Technology Committee has announced a new inquiry into setting funding priorities for scientific and technological research.

The Committee will investigate how Government and other public bodies responsible for the allocation of funding for science and technology research set priorities in the context of likely overall cuts in public spending. The inquiry will cover all aspects of science and technology, including the medical and engineering sciences.

The Committee will focus on how decisions are made to fund research to meet societal needs, the balance of funding between targeted and curiosity-driven research, and how research is commissioned in Government departments.

The Committee invites written evidence from any interested parties. The deadline for submission of written evidence is Friday 25 September 2009.

Visit the Committee’s website for a list of questions on which the Committee will seek evidence.

Amidst all the high drama of UK politics over the last week, it was very easy to miss a significant environmental legislative milestone. However, on Monday 8th June, the UK Marine Bill achieved its third reading in the House of Lords, thereby being passed out of that House and sent on to the Commons for consideration (somewhat unusually, the Marine Bill started first in the Lords and goes to the Commons second).

It has taken considerably longer than normal legislation to make its way through the Lords, and is in fact amongst their slowest-moving pieces of legislation ever (it took 1 week short of 6 months), which reflects the wide-ranging and complex nature of the Bill. Hopefully the amount of time spent examining and amending the Bill also means that it has been considerably improved. Indeed, this was one of the major sentiments expressed by Lords from all sides of the House in the last debate on the Bill, who took the opportunity to reflect on the significant improvements that have taken place over the past six months. In particular, marine science has been given a more major role in the new Marine Management Organisation, and the duty on Ministers to create a network of marine reserves has been strengthened.

There are still some major concerns however. The most important being that the network of marine reserves to be established under the Bill does not currently have to be ecologically coherent, which means there is ample opportunity for future Ministers to limit the effectiveness and extent of the network. Given the current focus on marine sustainability issues engendered by the excellent documentary ‘The End of the Line’, which was released this week, the BES hopes that this issue may be addressed by MPs when the Bill is taken up by the Commons.

The Marine & Coastal Access Bill, potentially the most important and far-reaching marine legislation ever passed in the UK, is continuing its slow but methodical progress through the House of Lords, where it is currently at report stage (the penultimate stage required before it can be sent to the Commons). The BES has been closely monitoring developments in the Bill, and it is a pleasure to be able to share some good news.

There were widespread concerns that the Marine Management Organisation (MMO), the new body which the Bill will establish to manage the UK marine environment, was going to have an insufficient focus on marine science in its decision-making processes. However, the Government has responded to our concerns by agreeing to several key new amendments.

Most importantly, the MMO will now have to employ a Chief Scientific Advisor at all times, and is under a new obligation to take account of all relevant scientific evidence when carrying out its duties. This comes on top of the Government’s recent undertaking that they would establish a science advisory committee for the MMO, and goes a long way to reassure us that the MMO will follow an evidence-based approach in its work.

The BES is still working to ensure that other parts of the Bill, particularly that establishing a network of marine reserves in UK waters, attach equal importance to the use of sound marine science. Nevertheless, the changes to the MMO represent a clear move in the right direction and are a significant improvement to the Bill.

If you are interested in the Society’s work on UK marine issues and would like to get more involved, we are currently in the process of responding to the Government’s draft strategy on the designation of marine protected areas. Please e-mail the Policy Team at policy@britishecologicalsociety.org if you would like to contribute to our response.

The House of Lords will today hold a debate focused on the bicentenary of Darwin’s birth.

Watch today’s debates in the Lords from 11am on Parliament.Tv

The House of Lords EU Committee have produced a report calling for an overhaul of the Emissions Trading System (ETS), in order to meet ambitious greenhouse gas (GHG)reduction targets, since it is the main tool of the EU to reduce carbon emissions.

Although the EU ETS underpins UK and EU climate change policy, its effectiveness in delivering its aim (to reduce GHGs) remains unproven. The Committee strongly urges that the System be reformed, despite reservations from various member states. For example Poland have expressed opposition to auctioning of carbon permits, largely due to their heavy dependence on coal burning for power generation.

However the Committee have called for all allowances to be auctioned by 2013, and if exceptions are made to member states it will be on the condition that clean coal technologies are developed and trialed during the transition phase.

Concern has also been expressed over ‘carbon leakage’ – that is industries producing excessive emissions relocate to countries with less stringent regulations – although these industries are in the minority. The Committee recommended these industries be identified by 2009, but no decision will be made to allocate them ‘free emission permits’ – that is the freedom to continue polluting – until after the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December 2009.

The Committee identified two risk areas regarding the ETS:

• Industries will not comply with regulations
• The ETS will not be joined up to global trading schemes and will therefore not fulfill their potential

Speaking about the report Lord Sewel, Chairman of the House of Lords EU Sub-Committee on Environment and Agriculture, said:

“Linking the EU ETS to other emissions trading schemes will be essential in order to maximise its environmental performance and minimise its economic costs. Worryingly, the prospects for such links appear to be poor.”

“Both the UK and the EU’s climate change policy is riding on the success of the ETS, which as yet is far from guaranteed. A timid deal at the summit of EU leaders could produce the worst of all worlds.”

The report will be available online shortly after publication at: http://www.parliament.uk/parliamentary_committees/lords_s_comm_d.cfm

The role of the BES in bringing together policy makers, ecologists and others to discuss topical issues in environmental policy has been highlighted in a response to a parliamentary question in the House of Lords. Lord Dykes (Spokesperson in the Lords – Europe), asked the Government to outline the progress made by the UK Biodiversity Advisory Group (UK BRAG) in investigating empirical ecosystems. In response, Lord Hunt of Kings Heath, Minister of State for Sustainable Development, Climate Change Adaptation and Air Quality at Defra, referenced the joint UK BRAG – BES workshop, held at this year’s BES annual meeting, which examined ecosystem services and the ecosystem approach:

” In September 2008, UK BRAG held a joint workshop with the British Ecological Society to look specifically at ecosystem services and the ecosystem approach. The workshop brought environmental researchers together with sociologists and geographers to look at valuing biodiversity in a more holistic and practical way. The proceedings of this workshop will shortly be available on the UK BRAG website.”

The BES will also be making the proceedings available online and will announce this on the Blog.

The BES is also involved in further high profile events in 2009, exploring the ecosystem approach, with a three-day stakeholder symposium from 29 April – 1 May. The BES has joined a partnership of organisations; the IOB, CEH and the Science Council, to form the ‘Natural Capital Initiative’. The Initiative’s website and further information about the symposium will shortly be available: again, this will be highlighted on the Blog.

Read the full transcript of today’s discussion in the Lords on ‘They Work for You’

The House of Lords Science and Technology Committee yesterday published a report criticising the Government for doing too little to encourage recycling amongst businesses. The Committee encourage the Government to amend waste targets, shifting the focus from reducing the weight of domestic waste sent to landfill to addressing commercial and industrial waste. Producers must be encouraged to take responsibility for the amount of waste generated by their products, with financial penalties to encourage greater efforts amongst businesses to reduce this.

The report also calls on the Government to introduce variable VAT rates, reducing VAT on projects which use sustainable raw materials. The Committee also suggest the Government examine the VAT levied on repairs to products, encouraging consumers to repair electronic goods, for example, rather than throwing them away when broken. Electronic goods can often cost as much to repair as the same product would cost to buy anew.

The Committee expressed disappointment that the Government is cutting funding to waste-reduction programmes, such as the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP), in 2008/09. Lord O’Neill, Chair of the Sub-Committee on Waste Reduction said: “This sends out entirely the wrong message at a time when reducing commercial waste both for economic and environmental reasons is more important than ever.”

The Committee are clear in their recommendation that Government focus must be on waste reduction, as well as re-use and recycling, to provide a long-term framework in which businesses are incentivised to improve the sustainability of their own practices.

Read full report: Waste Reduction (20 August 2008)

The House of Lords Science and Technology Committee has delivered its report on the current state of systematics and taxonomy in the UK. The Committee argues that systematics and taxonomy research in the UK is in critical decline and that further decline would severely impact on the UK’s ability to deliver its conservation aims.

The Committee has criticised the NERC for a lack of clarity over its process for funding taxonomic research; calling for greater funds to be made available to support this area, and also for the Research Councils to better coordinate dialogue between the producers and users of taxonomic research.

Speaking last week (13 August) on the launch of the report, the Committee’s Chair, Lord Sutherland of Houndwood said: “”Systematic biology is crucial for many of the Government’s targets on maintaining biodiversity and the protection of endangered species as well as providing an important measure of the effects of climate change. However there seems to be significant confusion within Government over who has responsibility for this vital area.”

The Committee has called on the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS) to take the lead in supporting systematics and taxonomic research.

The BES responded to the Committee’s inquiry, together with the Institute of Biology and Biosciences Federation. Read our response here.

Read full report: Systematics and Taxonomy: Follow-up

The House of Lords European Union Committee has today called for a major restructuring of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), phasing out farm subsidies from 2014 and diverting the resulting funds into rural development, which currently comprises only one fifth of the CAP spend.

The Committee’s report, ‘The Future of the Common Agricultural Policy’ criticises the current subsidies as acting as a ‘proxy for attainment of goals’, including environmental goals, which should be targeted directly, nationally or internationally. The proposed restructuring of the CAP will allow broader challenges and opportunities facing Europe’s rural areas to be better addressed.

The Committee also says that although the farming industry has much to do to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions and environmental impact, climate change may offer an opportunity for the farming industry to tap into new funding streams, through the provision of environmental services such as peat soil and flood-risk management.