Beaver protections should be reviewed, say MPs

Influential committee argues the UK should follow German model and allow local communities to control beavers without unnecessary bureaucracy

By James Fair

2023-07-21 07:45:18

Rewilding experts have reacted with dismay after a group of MPs called on the Government to remove the protected status for beavers that was only brought in last year.

Sir Robert Goodwill, chair of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (EFRA) Committee, said current protections for beavers were too stringent and would discourage landowners from supporting reintroduction proposals.

Sir Robert described a visit to Bavaria where the committee had learned how beavers could be trapped and moved, or even culled, on the authorisation of a ‘beaver ambassador’ if their dams were flooding farmers’ fields or creating other problems.

Alternatively, the landowner had the right to modify a dam to reduce its impacts.

“In the UK, because of legislation brought in last October, it would be a criminal offence to reduce the height of a dam,” Sir Robert said. “You’d have to make an application to Natural England.”

A report published by the committee also called on the Government to bring in a compensation scheme for farmers affected by reintroduced species.

But Rewilding Britain said that the committee had not heard any evidence suggesting the beaver’s protected status should be reviewed. “We can only conclude that this is the result of behind-the-scenes lobbying by a vocal minority,” it said in a tweet.

Sir Robert said the suggestion came entirely as a result of the visit to Bavaria and the fact that the reintroduction had proved so successful there.

There are several populations of wild-living beavers in Britain, most of them as a result of accidental or illegal releases.

There are populations on the River Otter in Devon, the Avon in Wiltshire and at Ham Fen in Kent, while the largest group is in the Tay Valley in Scotland.

There have been many releases of beavers into large enclosures, too.

Beavers were added to Schedule 2 of the Conservation of Habitats and Species Regulations 2017 on 1 October 2022.

It makes it an offence to “deliberately capture, injure, kill or disturb beavers, or damage and destroy their breeding sites or resting places without a licence from Natural England.”