5 Dec 2023
Analysis by Wildlife and Countryside Link and Wales Environment Link found too many offences are going unpunished after prosecutions fell by more than 40% last year.
Allister Webb
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Image: JonPauling / Pixabay
A new report has claimed too many people are “getting away with” wildlife crimes in England and Wales following a 42% drop in convictions last year.
The analysis by Wildlife and Countryside Link and Wales Environment Link also warned the true number of offences is likely to be much higher than its estimates suggest.
And, with an election expected in 2024, the report has challenged politicians to commit themselves to introducing centralised recording procedures if they win power.
It said: “Any party wishing to demonstrate environmental credibility must include a commitment to make wildlife crimes notifiable in their manifesto.
“The fight against wildlife crime has been hampered for too long by data shortfalls.”
Based on the report’s estimates, recorded incidents fell by around 8.7% in 2022 to 4,457 from the record total of 4,885 reported in 2021.
But the number of convictions slumped from 900 in 2021 to just 526 over the same period.
The report, which was compiled with input from several member organisations, described the present picture as “dispiriting” and warned it would be a “struggle” to meet current Government targets to halt the trend of species loss by 2030.
It also called for the introduction of centralised recording procedures that its advocates claim will make it easier to catch the criminals.
The report said: “The failure to get a grip on wildlife crime is hurting wildlife, nature recovery and people.
“Charities, [environmental] NGOs and police forces have spoken as one to request a key policy reform to turn this around – notifiable status for key wildlife crimes, allowing them to be centrally recorded by the Home Office.
“Having a clear and up-to-date central database for a particular type of criminal activity is a pre-requisite for successfully addressing it, allowing repeat offenders to be tracked and offending patterns to be observed, strengthening prosecution cases.
“This key informational input will improve multiple ‘downstream’ elements of the policing and criminal justice systems, making a clunky process more effective at deterring, catching and sanctioning wildlife criminals.”
The report further recommends increased resources for wildlife crime investigation units, urgent updates to existing legislation and the development of specific sentencing guidelines.
