The National Forum for Biological Recording's annual conference took place in person at the YMa Pontypridd in south Wales (near Cardiff) on Thu 09 May 2024 until Sat 11 May 2024.
The conference consisted of two days at YMa Pontypridd hearing from a range of biodiversity professionals and volunteers about how they have been involved in taking recording to the "next level". Sessions covered themes such as recorder development, extreme geography, novel technology and the discovery of new species, with a field trip to Dare Valley Country Parke to undertake some next-level recording!
The National Forum for Biological Recording is a registered charity and the premier UK organisation for practitioners engaged with biological recording across the UK. Membership includes individual naturalists, national organisations and recording societies, local environmental records centres and their staff. This gives it a unique perspective and an important role.
You can find out more, and become a member, on the NFBR website.
The excellent programme of talks included
- Unearthing Diversity: Surveying Invertebrates in Extreme Colliery Spoil Environments (Liam Olds, Colliery Spoil Biodiversity Initiative)
- LERC Wales: supporting the recording community in Wales (Jo Milborrow, BIS)
- Darwin Tree of Life Project (Inez Januszczak, Darwin Tree of Life)
- Extreme mothing: adventures with caterpillars that live in awkward places (George Tordoff, Butterfly Conservation)
- New Millipedes in South Wales (Steve Gregory, British Myriapod and Isopod Group)
- BioLinks: Structured ID Training Pathways for Invertebrates (Keiron Derek Brown, Biological Recording Company)
- eDNA in detection of waxcaps and other CHEGD grassland fungi (Gareth Griffiths, Aberystwyth University)
- Non-marine mollusc distribution mapping by the Conchological Society of Great Britain & Ireland: a citizen science project in the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries (Ben Rowson, National Museum of Wales)
- Magnificent Marine Life: Biodiversity, Health and Conservation of Our Local Sea (Matthew Green, Seasearch)
- Martens on the Move: establishing a national monitoring programme for a recovering carnivore (Lucy Nord, Vincent Wildlife Trust)
- Nest Recording (talk title TBC) (Tara Okon, Fledgemore Nest Recording Group)
- Life in the Dark: The Challenges of Monitoring and Recording the Invertebrate Biology Deep in the Caves of South Wales (Julian Carter, National Museum of Wales)
Talks were followed by the NFBR AGM and a panel discussion.
This event was delivered in partnership with LERC Wales, with bookings management hosted by the Biological Recording Company.