About SARnet

Welcome to SARnet - the Species At Risk Network for the South Coast of BC, is a data and mapping hub designed to provide up-to-date information to reduce knowledge gaps around species at risk occurrences, on the ground research and conservation actions. As a networking tool, SARnet is designed to be user-friendly and accessible to a range of audiences. The SCCP sees SARnet as an opportunity to engage the public on species at risk conservation through allowing them to connect to the diverse actions, activities and research community on the South Coast. The network component of SARnet is facilitated through providing information on who is doing species at risk work, on what species and how to contact them.

SARnet Purpose:

• facilitate an improved understanding of what information is available on priority species and ecological communities at risk in BC's South Coast region on issues such as recovery, survival habitat, restoration and management, research and other activities;
• provide information on new inventorying and monitoring standards and protocols being developed or applied;
• initiate networking between those involved in various species and ecological communities at risk activities;
• provide a mechanism for gap analyses and identifying where future efforts could be best directed on species at risk conservation.

As the SARnet user community grows it is hoped it will reduce unforeseen overlaps in effort and research by providing the various communities of practice (researchers, industry, professionals, citizen scientists) to become aware of current and past projects and the people and organizations involved in them. Contributors and site users will be able to connect with others working on specific projects to exchange insight, knowledge and expertise. Users can search the SARnet database using various search terms (species common name, scientific name, report author etc.) and ask to return records as a list or via a Google map display.

SARnet contributors are also urged to provide links to their research or reports so that contributors and users can not only find out who is doing work on a particular species but their findings as well. While the SCCP hopes that most contributions will be supported through links to open access information, we recognize that research and activities on species at risk can contain sensitive or proprietary information. Authors will have the option of setting access restrictions on their records. All contributors will be asked to sign up and create a username and password, agree to a user policy and provide brief information on their affiliation, credentials (if applicable) and area of focus or expertise. User accounts will be validated (to reduce risk of spammers etc.).

Once an account has been set up, contributors can login and add new SARnet records (titles, abstracts and links). When adding records users can choose to make various components public or private (e.g. author contact information). Each record will include the project name/document title, brief description, keywords (e.g. species, ecological community, type of activity) and other details that contributors may consider pertinent. Fields which will always default as public are the project title, date, description and keywords. This at least allows all users of the system to know work around a particular species is occurring or has occurred and its history.