Beaver protection fears after law delay in England

Image source, PA Media

Plans to grant legal protection from capture, killed, injured or disturbed without a licence have been delayed.

The legislation was supposed to be introduced on Tuesday but the government said it would come soon.

The Wildlife Trusts said the decision to delay would endanger the reintroduction of the animals to the wild.

The National Farmers' Union is worried about the future of the population of beavers.

There are sites across Britain that have reintroduced the extinct edmonton beaver.

Ten years after the first wild beavers were released in Scotland, they were granted legal protection.

The government in England is trying to get an amendment to the regulations that will protect the animals from October.

The release of the animals into the wild is currently being considered.

The Wildlife Trusts, which have overseen the release of Eurasian beavers across Britain, have seen a number of kits born this month, and they have highlighted the work the animals do in holding water during the current heat.

They want to know why the move wasn't done sooner.

It is disappointing that the legislation has been brought to a juddering holt with no explanation for why.

We need to see the return of wild beavers to create wetlands and restore rivers that have been damaged by centuries of dredge. We need our animals back as England deals with nature and climate emergencies.

In England and Wales, there are trials assessing the impact of beavers on the environment, with studies showing that the semi-aquatic mammals can slow river flows with their dams, which can protect land from flooding.

The new legislation would allow Natural England to grant wildlife management licences if they wanted to control the population of beavers.

Farmers should be able to manage populations where necessary, according to the NFU.

The chair of the NFU's environment forum said that they were concerned about the potential impacts that beavers could have on agricultural land.

There needs to be an effective and bureaucracy-free management framework in place before beavers are protected. Farmers need to be able to maintain their productivity.