.04 Biodiversity Action Reporting System
BARS is the system used for recording and reporting on biodiversity conservation activity in the UK. BARS was initially developed in 2002, with the current web-based system being launched in 2004.
Development of the system is supported by a partnership led by Natural England working in association with the Countryside Council for Wales, Scottish Natural Heritage, the Wales Biodiversity Partnership, the Environment and Heritage Service, DEFRA and the Environment Agency.
There are 3,969 registered BARS users from a total of 1,135 organisations, providing data on 39,594 individual biodiversity actions. These actions are delivered to implement various national and local biodiversity action plans and strategies.
BARS is a fully web-based system providing registered users with a rich user interface to record biodiversity activity, along with a comprehensive set of reporting options. Partners are able to query and display live data from BARS in their own websites using a set of web services.
The general public also uses the BARS system to view information on biodiversity conservation activity in the UK - BARS provides numerous options to search and drill-down, by species, by national plan or strategy, by local plan or by the geographical locations where actions are carried out. All in
all, a fairly complex bit of work.