About HBRC
HBRC is the Local Biological Records Centre for the County of Herefordshire.
A Biological Records Centre is defined as –
A not-for-profit service run in partnership for the public benefit, which collects, collates, manages and disseminates information of known quality relating to wildlife, wildlife sites and habitats of a defined geographical area.
Herefordshire Biological Records Centre (HBRC)’s main aims are to hold all available data about species, wildlife sites and habitats in Herefordshire, and to make this information available to help inform decision-making about our county’s natural environment. There are many people and groups who collect information about our natural environment. By collating all this information in one place at HBRC, everyone can get a better overview of the status and distribution of the county’s wildlife.
The centre is a not-for-profit partnership service and was developed by Herefordshire Council in 2001; it continues to be hosted by the Council, sitting within the ecology service. HBRC works closely with other West Midlands record centres (Birmingham & Black Country, Worcestershire, Shropshire, Staffordshire and Warwickshire) and is a member of the Association for Local Environmental Records Centres (ALERC).
How is the biological record centre data used?
Our database currently holds over 900,000 species records.
We use these records to inform, educate and provide data that environmentalists, ecologists, researchers, planners, and other individuals and organisations can use.
We also aim to provide support for biological recording and for biological recorders within Herefordshire.
Regional and national projects also use HBRC data to inform biodiversity conservation efforts on a larger scale.