Supplementary memorandum submitted by
Butterfly Conservation (DAR 04a)
Since our main submission in November, details
have been provided on several more examples of where budget cuts
have affected important conservation work on threatened BAP Priority
butterflies and moths in the current financial year:
1. The following three projects due to be
funded on highly threatened species under the Species Recovery
Programme were cancelled:
Marsh Fritillary: monitoring Mid
Cornwall Moors LIFE project;
Fiery Clearwing moth: autecology,
monitoring and site management; and
Netted Carpet moth: autecology, monitoring
and management.
2. Most worrying still is the lack of any
indication of funding for Species Recovery work for 2007-08 and
beyond. This is directly impacting on the relationships which
Natural England has with major NGOs, Universities, Research Institutes
and specialist consultants, and will impact on their ability to
progress the Government approved action plans for species identified
to comply with international treaties (Biodiversity Convention,
EU Habitats and Species Directive etc). There is now a projected
four to five month delay in letting large contracts, which have
to go through a laborious European tendering process. Thus essential
work scheduled to start at the beginning of the field season in
April will need to be tendered in January at the latest. This
seems impossible unless tendering starts within the next week
(which is unlikely). Thus it seems inevitable that a whole field
season will be missed as a result and many projects that need
sustained effort will be badly affected. This is especially critical
for many projects run by NGOs such as Butterfly Conservation,
which rely on volunteer involvement.
In conclusion, Butterfly Conservation is extremely
concerned about the impact of the Defra cuts, and the knock on
effects for the coming year. They are having serious impacts on
both the delivery of government biodiversity targets and on the
volunteer community who are trying to help government meet its
own targets to halt biodiversity loss.
We strongly urge Defra to correct this as soon
as possible and to remove the blockages to the efficient and speedy
use of resources for the coming year.
Butterfly Conservation
December 2006
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