The paper ‘Signals from local and national monitoring will guide us to nature recovery’ delivers a timely and compelling case for integrating local-scale biodiversity monitoring with established national schemes. The authors highlight that while UK-wide citizen-science programmes are invaluable for detecting broad trends, they often miss the fine-scale ecological changes that shape real-world management decisions. Local monitoring, aligned and standardised across regions, can fill these gaps by offering early indicators of change, supporting targeted interventions, and enabling more comprehensive, multi-taxon assessments.

The report sets out clear evidence needs and outlines how closer coordination between national and local initiatives can improve sampling design, data integration, and the evaluation of intervention effectiveness. This complementary approach strengthens both policy development and practical conservation delivery, particularly in the context of Local Nature Recovery Strategies, Protected Landscapes, and nature finance.

For CIEEM members, the paper is especially relevant, with it providing a framework for consistent, scalable monitoring that directly supports professional practice, decision-making, and landscape-level recovery planning.

Reference: Marion, S., Burton, C. Dunkley F., Harris M. & Wright, E. 2025. Signals from local and national monitoring will guide us to nature recovery. JNCC Report 804. JNCC, Peterborough, ISSN 0963-8091.