Protecting the Bunce legacy: lessons learned from safeguarding long-term ecological survey datasets in Great Britain

Rescued data helps to strengthen ecological understanding of biodiversity change. This paper presents experience from safeguarding long-term strategic ecological surveys established by the late Professor Robert Bunce and colleagues in the 1970s: the Great Britain Countryside Surveys, and various related and complementary surveys in the period 1969 to the mid-1990s, including woodland surveys, and regional surveys for Cumbria and Shetland. These surveys are valuable data sources - especially considering national and global ecological restoration targets to address the biodiversity crisis - providing evidence to explore and understand ecological changes in the British countryside over time. For these kinds of data to be useful, usable and used, it is essential they are accessible and well managed, but many important ecological data sets are at risk of loss. A decade of work to protect the Bunce surveys has resulted in a structured five-step approach that can benefit other data rescue and safeguarding initiatives as well as scientists planning new ecological monitoring projects. The steps involve identifying available resources, processing datasets, assembling metadata, producing outputs and publishing. Valuable lessons learnt in the process include: (1) the growing appreciation and relevance of historic ecological data; (2) the importance of adequate resourcing and recognition of data rescue activity; (3) the value of engaging with the originators; (4) the need to identify and understand potential users and uses of the data. The Bunce legacy of strategic ecological surveys in the UK is now protected and the data available for repeat survey and further analysis.