Last month, the RSPB's Head of Investigations, Bob Elliot wrote (here) about our fears about the future of the National Wildlife Crime Unit. Thousands of people also signed a petition calling for long term funding for the Unit's work. Today, Environment Minister Rory Stewart, in a written statement to the House Commons (here) confirmed government funding for the next four financial years.
Responding to the announcement today, Bob reflected the RSPB view by saying "We very much welcome the news that the National Wildlife Crime Unit has secured funding for a further four years. The RSPB recognises the clear improvements to the policing of wildlife crime which have resulted from the work of the NWCU since it was founded in 2006. In particular, it has been instrumental in tackling some of the most serious wildlife trade offence in endangered species. We look forward to working closely with the unit on issues such as the illegal killing of prey and the sharing of intelligence."
I am particularly glad that the NWCU has some medium-term security. It allows it to proceed with confidence (at least to the end of the decade) to carry out its responsibilities which includes contributing to action 3 of the Hen Harrier Action Plan (see here). This is the bit of the plan that is explicitly about tackling persecution by working through the Raptor Persecution Priority Delivery Group (RPPDG) to analyse monitoring information and build intelligence picture. As the plan says...
"Raptor persecution is one of the UK’s six wildlife crime priorities, and the hen harrier is one of 6 species meriting special attention. Each priority has a delivery group which considers what action should be taken to prevent crime, gather intelligence on offences and enforce against it. The Hen Harrier Subgroup will work with the RPPDG to share intelligence on suspicious activity at nest sites and winter roosts and to seek advice on how to provide sufficient protection to reintroduced populations.
Maps showing confirmed cases of raptor poisoning are published annually, along with a protocol for gathering and using the information. The RPPDG will work on further datasets which it considers will be of use in highlighting and preventing different types of raptor persecution incidents and those other crimes which have the potential to harm raptors."
So, a good day in the fight against wildlife crime.
Thanks for the prompt, Mike.
Alas, while it might look like we have lots of discretionary assets, the reality is that nearly all our funds are committed in any one year to support existing conservation priorities.
For example the Defra funding is primarily through agri-environment payments to support our land management across our reserve network.
So, we think that the best thing we can do is to work with the NWCU on intelligence sharing etc and help it have the impact we need. Of course, should something change, we can review the situation again.
And on Budget day, it is worth saying that we still think that there is a role of state investment in nature conservation and will continue to make that government response remains inadequate to meet the challenges facing nature.
and the results of your pondering are??
regards
Mike
A fair challenge, Mike. I shall ponder further.
Hi Martin,
One final comment if I may.
Please do not take my criticism the wrong way. I am incredibly proud to be a member of the RSPB and I have great respect and support for the vast range of its activities and initiatives. I am also appreciative of the very high quality it works to on our behalf.
I think however that it can do more on the specific issue of wildlife crime. There is currently a great need to inform the general public of the impact of wildlife crime and the detrimental effects of using lead ammunition. I do not think it is right that these issues are left to Mark Avery, Chris Packham, Rob Sheldon and BAWC to champion when the RSPB represents over a million voices.
Taking the NWCU as a point. I was suggesting in my earlier note financial support that would be the equivalent of a precept of 10p per member a year from an organisation that looks after assets of over £130m
Looking through the RSPB accounts I see that we received grants from DEFRA of £7,047,000 in 2015 (up from £6,231,000 in 2014). I feel that this puts the government funding of NWCU, which amounts to only £272,000 a year for 4 years, in very very sharp perspective.
I think we need to do more.
Thanks
Thank, Mike. Alas, our financial reserves are not substantial - we only have something like 3 months financial cover. Our investment is through our expert investigation staff, volunteers and the Life funded tagging work.