Blog: What nobody is saying about the threats facing our UK wildlife legislation

By Jenny Tse-Leon (Conservation, Evaluation and Research Manager, Froglife) and Nida Al-Fulaij (Conservation Research Manager, People’s Trust for Endangered Species).

We’re constantly being told about the threats facing our wildlife. But what about the threats facing the very laws created to protect our wild species and places?

Our journey started just over a year ago, in June 2021.  We met through an innocuous online coffee and chat meeting organised by Conservation Evidence during the pandemic. At that stage we had no idea that, within a week, we’d be meeting regularly for the next year, having started a partnership that would find us coordinating a group of 48 UK NGOs to oppose critical changes being proposed to the Wildlife and Countryside Act. Dr Jen Nightgale wrote a blog for BIAZA, outlining the worrying changes to these proposals.

It isn’t the first time our wildlife legislation has been under attack, but it was the first time either of us had been involved. Neither of us had prior experience of policy work and maybe this was exactly why our partnership worked so well.  And why we can be proud of the successes we’ve had so far. The fight to protect our critical wildlife laws is far from over, but our lack of experience enabled us to ask direct – if obvious - questions, bypass protocol to some extent, and keep pushing for change.  

In this blog we’re highlighting how those proposed changes - to just one piece of legislation – appear to be part of a broader effort to undermine protection for our natural world. Right when it needs it most. We know that globally our biodiversity is in crisis. We know that the UK is one of the most ‘nature-depleted’ countries in the world. We know that, here in the UK, people are passionate about wildlife. And yet we find ourselves in a situation where numerous proposals - either as part of new legislation or in reference to current law – seek to remove robust protection and simplify (read: weaken) the measures we have to protect many of our wild species and places. 

One in ten species faces extinction in the UK

With Brexit, the UK has the opportunity to establish its own laws around environmental protection. The Welsh government committed to legislate to address any environmental governance gaps following Brexit, whilst a spokesperson for the Scottish government state that they’ll maintain or even exceed EU environmental standards. The Environment Act has recently come into force in England and a Nature Recovery Green Paper (NRGP) is currently being consulted on. Much is being made of our world-leading legislation. It will be a global first to have species extinction and recovery targets set in law, alongside other critical targets to improve water and air quality, and to reduce waste. However, whilst the ambition is laudable, the detail and conviction are sorely lacking. As it stands, the proposed English biodiversity targets – which aim to halt species loss and begin to restore species abundance by at least 10% by 2042, compared to 2030 levels – will result in the UK having less biodiversity then than we do today.  Species protection proposals in the NRGP seek to simplify the system which addresses which threats different animal and plant species are protected from. But simplification won’t solve a complex problem.  Meanwhile the Senedd Climate Change, Environment and Infrastructure committee has recently highlighted concerns that, there are significant and unacceptable gaps in Wales’ environmental governance arrangements. Whilst in Scotland, a coalition of leading environmental NGOs, including Froglife, has launched an urgent campaign calling on their government to have its own environment act.

Brexit also provides our government with the opportunity to revise current legislation. Legislation that has been imperative in protecting many sites that are internationally important for threatened habitats and species. Once again ministers are proposing to weaken the Conservation of Habitats and Species Regulations 2017 as amended (known as the Habitats Regulations). This, coupled with initial proposals to remove legal protection for 334 species and further proposals to undermine which species can be listed on the Wildlife and Countryside Act and which threats they can be listed for protection from, is as worrying a threat to our wildlife as the very threats the law is supposed to protect them from.

That’s not all. Other legislative changes are being proposed that appear to be weakening protection for important sites and endangered wildlife. Wording being proposed for the new Levelling Up & Regeneration Bill could see compensatory habitat work being moved off site without a strategy for working out where. The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) has identified chemical pollution as one of the five direct drivers of the biodiversity crisis, making our wildlife more vulnerable and less resilient, when it is already under threat from climate change and habitat loss. And the much-needed support for farmers to deliver environmental benefits and sustainably manage their land, as part of the new Environmental land management schemes, is now at risk of being abandoned.  Some farming sectors successfully lobbied to have all mention of the need to reduce our red meat consumption removed from the new Food Strategy. Without this overall aim it will be more difficult to meet the targets laid out in the 25 Year Environment Plan, and reduces the likelihood that we will tackle the pollution and landscape-scale problems associated with the meat and dairy industry.

We now have a date for COP15 – December 2022. This is the worldwide summit to set binding, global targets for biodiversity. The UK is positioning itself as a world leader in this field. We hope it will be and will work hard to ensure it is, but we must be careful not to be distracted by positive headlines whilst failing to grasp the substance of the actions this government is taking here at home. 

Many challenges faced by our wildlife boil down to lack of funding. Yes, we could strengthen legislation, but existing laws are not enforced due to lack of resources, so unless this changes, what is the point? It could take the better part of a decade to develop new legislation - for many species this will be too late.

The environmental sector has a strong message. One that is quite clear. As things stand we are not going to meet the targets to halt biodiversity loss by 2030.  Government failed to meet the target in 2010. It failed to meet the target again in 2020. And it appears that it’s planning on failing for a third time. But we can’t let that happen. This time we have to ensure that meaningful, robust plans are put in place now, with the resources to support them, and no further time is wasted on bureaucratic processes.

The first thing we need to do is start talking about it…

All blogs reflect the views of their author and are not a reflection of BIAZA's positions.