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Database for UK Fungi of Conservation Importance

An attractive and distinctive species of unimproved grassland, very rare in Europe. Hygrocybe calyptriformis has excited widespread conservation interest and is the subject of a Biodiversity Action Plan.

The inclusion of 27 non-lichenised fungi in the UK Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP) marked a turning point in fungal conservation. The fungal kingdom was launched on to the work programmes of the country agencies and other organisations at a time when the tools, data, organisation and communication of fieldworkers were all showing improvements. The timing was auspicious and heralded a greater emphasis on gathering, storing and using fungal data and a greater awareness of fungi in general. Initial concerns about which species were included have given way to better partnerships and coordination of the work required to conserve fungi.

Above all, BAP has stimulated recorders, researchers and those using databases and publicity to help to improve our understanding of the UK’s diverse and ecologically important mycota. However, it has also illuminated the limitations on our ability to deliver which, given the impending increase in BAP fungi species, we need to address.

The recent BAP review has a draft list of some 80 species which will lead to additional work. A fungi conservation database needs to be set up which will enable conservationists working in partnership to: undertake the implementation of the increased number of plans; provide better evidence for identifying fungi priorities; and bring about a more widely based surveillance and monitoring programme.

The newly recommended BAP targets and species have brought about a new dimension of hectad-based, and therefore quantified, recording and monitoring. Under the current regime, this places an additional and unsustainable burden on both the voluntary capacity of key organisations, principally the British Mycological Society and Association of British Fungus Groups, and the limited staffing of research institutes, NGOs and the Country Agencies. Pivotal to the successful introduction and achievement of quantified BAP targets, therefore, is the establishment of a fungi conservation database. This will provide data essential to drawing up a prioritised programme. It will involve working on a subset of the British Mycological Society Fungi Records Database (BMSFRD), to ‘clean up’ and add to the records and to set up a monitoring programme which can be based on firm management and investigation of databased records, sites and material.

The database will be developed at Kew in conjunction with English Nature and their fungi BAP contractor. It is important that those involved with fungi conservation develop and use one database. In the longer term it is vital that the BMSFRD is the ‘one-stop shop’ but it needs an overhaul, protocols developing and duplication of records removed and cleaned up. This will involve liaison with Paul Kirk at BMS/CABI who oversees the BMSFRD.

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