Click here to access the quinquennial review section of the JNCC website.
Guardian ‘Legal protections for wildlife and plants in the UK are set for a review that could result in some important species losing their entitlement to special status, ecology experts have told the Guardian. Adders, slow worms, water voles, mountain hares, pine martens and red squirrels are among the species experts have warned could be affected, after unexpected changes to the government’s review process that will raise the bar on how rare and under threat an animal needs to be to gain legal safeguards.
The changes, which have not been widely heralded by the government, could benefit property developers and infrastructure projects such as road-building, which currently have to take account of rare species found within the proposed development areas, and sometimes have to be changed or moved as a result.
Campaigners are worried that this sets the bar too high, and that dozens of species which are at risk would lose vital safeguards. More than 30 conservation groups have written to ministers of their concerns. In a letter seen by the Guardian, they argue that the government’s plan to move away from the UK’s own standards to use definitions of risk from the IUCN. Richard Benwell, the chief executive of Wildlife and Countryside Link, said the species that would certainly have protection removed under the changes included stag beetles, purple emperor butterflies, pine martens, brown hares and mountain hares. Species that were likely to have protection removed included adders, smooth newts, grass snakes and basking sharks.
Under the Wildlife and Countryside Act (WCA) of 1981, the government must review the status of protected species on a five-yearly basis, a process now under way. The WCA classifies the UK’s rare flora and fauna, with legal protections for those considered at risk.
When species are protected, it becomes illegal to harm them, for instance through hunting or plant-collecting, or to sell or trade in them. Protections can also extend to their habitat, which can affect infrastructure and development schemes such as housebuilding or new roads.
Last summer, announcing a push to “build, build, build”, the prime minister, Boris Johnson, attacked wildlife protections. “The newt-counting delays in our system are a massive drag on the productivity and prosperity of this country,” he said.
In documents published on an obscure government website, (ie the JNCC!) the terms of this year’s review have been changed, to incorporate new standards that would mean an animal or plant species would only be protected if “in imminent danger of extinction”.
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