The Surveillance Strategy has been in
development since 2006, and it continues to be updated and
evolve. Some earlier versions of the strategy have been
considered by the JNCC Committee and other groups.
The earliest version of the Surveillance
Strategy was included in the March 2006 JNCC Committee paper, which
also deals with a strategy for reporting and research. This
paper contained the first breakdown of the surveillance framework
into three objectives. The paper is useful for showing
the links between surveillance, reporting and research,
and includes Appendix 1 on national and international
surveillance obligations. A later version of the Strategy was
discussed as a March 2008 JNCC Committee
paper. A short version of the Strategy was discussed by
the UK Biodiversity Standing Committee, as the April 2008 strategy paper. These
versions of the strategy were superseded by the Surveillance Strategy (February 2009
version), and now further updates to the strategy are being added
to the Surveillance Strategy website.
The future
JNCC reviewed the surveillance strategy in December 2010 in a JNCC Committee
paper. This paper considers the application of the strategy so
far, factors affecting the strategy, how it can be adapted to meet
new requirements concerning ecosystem services and
valuation, and the future of the strategy.
The three surveillance strategy objectives attempt to
provide a logical framework for assessing the coverage and
relevance of surveillance activities. Within this framework,
most policy questions which rely on surveillance evidence will find
appropriate information. The framework needs to be broad
enough for the evidence needs of new and evolving areas of
policy. To develop understanding of the framework, JNCC
produced a Discussion Paper on the Surveillance
Rationale, which looks at how some other countries have
considered surveillance, and how surveillance requirements can be
assessed. This paper led to the production of the Assessment of the Surveillance
Rationale and Objectives, which includes suggestions for
further developing:
This development work will be gradual, and
will feed through to a number of the Surveillance Strategy
documents.