Exclusive: Natural England chair Tony Juniper says government must work quickly to reconcile farming and nature. England will not meet its biodiversity targets at current rates, the chair of Natural England has said, as he accused ministers of moving too slowly to regenerate nature.
Tony Juniper, who has been in post at the government’s nature quango since 2019, said ministers were not on track to meet species abundance targets, which have been criticised by wildlife charities as “embarrassingly poor”.
The government has set a legally binding target to halt the decline in species abundance by 2030 and committed to increasing the abundance of wildlife by 10% by 2042 compared with 2030 levels. Juniper said: “We’re not moving with the speed that will be needed to meet the 2030 species target. And we’re going to have to work much harder to be able to do that.”
He said ministers needed to work quickly to be able to fix the conflicts between farming and nature. “This is about reconciling, again, some really quite complicated conundrums, including how, for example, we can maintain a high level of domestic food production at the same time as bringing wildlife back into the landscape,” he said. “And some of this is about policy. Some of it is about knowledge. Some of it is about culture. It’s a transition that can be made. But it does need to go more quickly than presently is the case if we’re going to meet those 2030 targets.”
Juniper has come under fire from nature campaigners in recent weeks for continuing with a trial scheme to protect hen harriers. The most controversial part of the trial is taking the eggs or chicks of some hen harriers nesting on grouse moors into captivity, rearing the birds to fledging age and releasing them back into the wild in the uplands of northern England. This is despite continued persecution of the birds, which have historically been killed by gamekeepers working for the grouse industry as they predate on game birds. Recent research by the RSPB has shown that persecution is still the main cause of death for hen harriers, with many killed shortly after fledging.
The nature chief said he would continue with the trial to see if it worked, and that if persecution persisted he could advise ministers to clamp down on grouse shooting, licensing shoots in a similar way to the Scottish government.
Juniper said: “The evidence suggests there is a continuing level of illegal persecution. And actually, not only is there illegal persecution, there is some really quite disturbing level of cruelty involved with this, with some of the instances of birds being pulled apart while they’re still alive, nests being destroyed deliberately.
“That really does need to change if we’re going to see the hen harrier plan as a success. And if we don’t see it as a success, then we’ll need to do something else. And we’re very interested in the licensing discussion that’s going on in Scotland, and the extent to which that may inform the future here.”
The release of beavers in England appears to be something Juniper is passionate about, with a Devon trial that ended in 2020 finding the rodents have huge benefits for the environment. They went extinct in the country from being hunted 400 years ago and have since been illegally released in small numbers by frustrated nature activists.
Juniper suggested ministers were dragging their feet over allowing beavers to be let loose in the countryside, despite the evidence showing they were good for the environment.
He said: “We have reached the conclusion of Natural England that it would be right to license beaver reintroductions into England. And that we’re confident that can be managed in a way which would minimise risks to infrastructure and food security and to property. So we’re awaiting decisions from ministers on that, it will be their decision. We need to be given a clear signal as to the approach ministers would like to adopt, we believe the evidence is clear as to the benefits of beavers.”
Thérèse Coffey, the environment secretary, has ruled out the release of wolves and lynx. Juniper said: “I do welcome the raising of the profile of some of these discussions because what she did do was encouraged a discussion and led to people debating the pros and cons of these kinds of proposals. It may be quite a long time before we can look at wolf but certainly there’s many people now thinking about lynx, including in Scotland.”
Another fierce debate raging in nature circles is over the right to roam. While some argue that people in England should enjoy similar access to nature as those in Scotland, who have free rein to roam the countryside – with some caveats – others fear it could lead to the trampling of sensitive habitat.
Juniper suggested he did not agree with a complete right to roam. “I think being outside in the natural environment is a very important thing that is hugely beneficial for people,” he said. “But I do believe that we need to be careful about other interests that we need to maintain at the same time as public health, including the protection of sensitive nature, which might be disturbed by dogs or by people who have the right to roam and not necessarily with a responsibility to protect. There’s a lot of complexity in that.”
