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Natural England wary of local badger ‘extinction’

FARMERS GUARDIAN
14 July 2011 | By Alistair Driver

NATURAL England has challenged Defra Ministers on whether the proposed English badger cull would breach the Bern Convention on wildlife preservation.

Natural England will be tasked with issuing licences to groups of farmers to cull badgers, if the policy, now expected to be announced early next week, goes ahead.

But it has emerged that the agency, whose prime objective is to ‘protect and improve England’s natural environment’, has reservations about the policy.

In particular, it has been questioning Ministers on whether the cull could lead to the ‘extinction’ of local badger populations and whether it therefore potentially breaches the international Bern Convention on wildlife and habitat preservation.

An agency spokesman said: “We are working with Defra to make sure that any proposed cull will be conducted with appropriate safeguards to ensure there is not local extinction of badger populations and that their conservation status will not be compromised.”

But Defra appears to be confident that the cull, if sanctioned, would not lead to local extinction. A spokesperson said experience from the Randomised Badger Culling Trial was that ‘only around 70 per cent of badgers in an area would be culled’.

“If a cull went ahead we are confident that the proposal consulted on complies with the requirements of the Bern Convention,” he said.

This is just one of numerous issues that arisen in the build to the announcement, which was put back again this week.

It had been pencilled in for this Tuesday. But the pre-occupation of senior Government figures who will have to sign off the policy, including Prime Minister David Cameron and his deputy Nick Clegg, with phone hacking scandal has been cited as a possible reason for the delay.

It is understood there have also been continuing discussions over the fine details of security arrangements in recent weeks.   

Other issues that have had to be thrashed out include finding a means of ensuring farmers adhere to licence conditions for the four entire year licence period. Defra is understood to want farmers to pay up front for the duration to minimise the number of farmers who drop out.

There has also been considerable time spent establishing, with industry bodies like the NFU, the protocols surrounding the shooting of badgers, which would be carried out only by trained and licensed contractors.

Defra has been acutely aware that if it sanctions a badger cull policy, it is likely to be challenged in the courts.

“There is clear intent by the Badger Trust to take us to Judicial Review, if we go down this road, and we have to be absolutely sure we are copper plated and can address that challenge,” Farming Minister Jim Paice said in a recent interview with Farmers Guardian.

If Ministers give the go ahead, there is likely to be further consultation on details of the badger cull licences.

Culling, which would be limited to small number of areas initially, would not commence until early next summer.

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