UK wildlife crime on the up
A new report shows UK wildlife crime is at worrying levels, yet conviction rates are at an all-time low.
From badger-baiting to disturbing bats and seals, nearly 5,000 incidents of wildlife crime were reported last year, according to a new report published by Wildlife and Countryside Link. Born Free and other Link members are calling for improved measures to protect UK wildlife from criminals.
The report shows that wildlife crime levels in Britain have remained stubbornly high since a surge during the Covid-19 pandemic, with 4,735 incidents reported in 2023. There were increased instances of persecution, harm or death being reported for badgers, bats, and marine mammals in 2023. Yet convictions for wildlife crime remain shockingly few, with numbers at an all-time low, when looking at all types of wildlife crime.
The Wildlife and Countryside Link is a coalition of organisations that work to protect nature in the UK. Born Free has been a member since 2015, and currently chairs Link’s Wildlife Crime Working Group.
The data collected in the Link report from wildlife protection and environment organisations is an indication of crime levels and not a complete picture of the extent of wildlife crime in Britain. Civil society has to fill the knowledge gap because, unlike with other types of crime, there is no Home Office centralised system for recording wildlife crime incidents across the country.
Wildlife crime incidents are haphazardly entered into individual reporting systems of police forces, but they do not feed through into regional or national crime databases. There are also no sentencing guidelines for wildlife crimes and judges tend to be very cautious in this area making custodial sentences very rare. Fines for wildlife criminals are usually well below the potential gains from the offending activity.
Responding to the publication of the report Dominic Dyer, Policy Advisor at Born Free and Chair of the Wildlife and Countryside Link Wildlife Crime Group, said: “The Government has a chance to turn the corner on wildlife crime, but it needs to make such crime notifiable to the Home Office, increase resources and training for wildlife crime teams in police forces and introduce sentencing guidelines for judges.”