Funding announced for wildlife crime unit for next year

The Department for the Environment, Food, Rural Affairs and the Home Office confirmed yesterday they will each provide £136,000 for the National Wildlife Crime Unit for the next financial year.

The confirmation of another year’s funding was welcomed by wildlife groups, but they warned there needed to be more long-term certainty for the unit. Recent operations have targeted badger-baiting, smuggling of reptiles and amphibians and persecution of birds of prey.

The Yorkshire Post revealed last month that Ministers had been warned the NWCU is vital to ensuring the persecution of endangered wildlife does not escalate. North Yorkshire ranks as the worst blackspot nationally for offences where birds of prey have been shot, trapped and poisoned, according to the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB).

The RSPB’s conservation director Martin Harper said: “The illegal killing of birds of prey is threatening the security of some species, with the hen harrier facing imminent extinction in England as a nesting species. The unit is a vital part of the UK’s fight against wildlife crime, and we’re relieved these crime fighters have been given a further year to provide the protection our wildlife deserves.”

And Philip Mansbridge, the CEO of international charity Care for the Wild, added: “It’s great news that the funding has been found, but it would have been a crime to let this unit fold. Simply put, if we allow our wildlife to be abused or killed, be it a rhino or a badger, then we are the lesser for it.”

The House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee published an inquiry into wildlife crime in October, which called for a long-term commitment to the NWCU. It said legislation surrounding wildlife crime is “too complex” for non-specialist police officers and prosecutors to apply effectively.

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