Developing the strategy – the past and the future 

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 These versions of the strategy were superseded by the Surveillance Strategy (February 2009 version), and now further updates to the strategy are being added to the Surveillance Strategy website.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:

• communication of the strategy
• the needs analysis within the Surveillance Framework
• work on habitat surveillance
• decision tools within the Surveillance Strategy, such as the Surveillance Hierarchy 

This development work will be gradual, and will feed through to a number of the Surveillance Strategy documents.