HOW WILL WE BLOCK INVASIVE SPECIES AFTER BREXIT?
“Invasive species are waging war on our natural environment”
Limiting the number of people setting up home here from elsewhere in Europe may be one of the consequences of Brexit. Ironically, leaving the EU could make it harder to stop a different kind of immigration: that of unwelcome and perhaps dangerous bugs and beasties crossing the Channel and harming our countryside.
Around 3,000 types of foreign plants, invertebrates, mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians have settled in this country and many live quite harmoniously with the natives. But others – labelled invasive – do not. “The UK is currently experiencing an avalanche of new invasive species from flatworms to ladybirds and weevils and they are a huge threat,” says Matt Shardlow, chief executive of the charity Buglife.
ALLIED AGAINST ALIENS
Last year, EU-wide rules (Invasive Alien Species regulations) asked all member states to assess and block the pathways such species take across borders. As a result, 37 species are banned from the UK, including muntjac deer, skunk cabbage, floating primrose and signal crayfish – all of which are waging war on our natural environment. It is forbidden to grow, breed, sell or release into the wild those on the banned list... but there is a big ‘but’.
“This legislation may have offered the best hope of improving the biosecurity of our borders,” says Shardlow. “But when the UK leaves the EU, even if it is a ‘soft’ exit, the regulations will no longer The loss of EU regulations could lead to invasive species such as the red palm weevil destroying our native flora and fauna apply here and it will be harder to get multi-state co-operation.
“Annually we import more than £1 billion worth of live plants and the soil they’re in poses a great threat because it can harbour species that threaten our native ones. There are few checks on pot plants and little biosecurity, in stark contrast to islands such as Australia and New Zealand.
“Buglife hopes the Government gets a firm grip on this issue and takes resolute action to halt the invasion of harmful species.”
DEFRA says tight regulations are in place over importation of plants and products from places with known risks, with targeted inspections at ports and airports.
DANGEROUS ARRIVALS
The cost to the UK economy of alien creatures is roughly £2 billion a year and in the past few months even more have joined the watch list, including: • Asian hornet attacks honeybee colonies and wild solitary bees. It arrived at two sites in Shropshire and Gloucestershire. • Obama worm from Brazil is the latest of 18 types of flatworm invading Europe’s gardens and preying on the earthworm. This crawled out of a plant pot imported from the Netherlands at an Oxfordshire garden centre. • Red palm weevil is a threat to palms growing in the UK and also arrived in a pot plant in Essex.
Theresa May and co are keeping Brexit plans close to their chests so how does DEFRA respond to fears the ‘avalanche’ will get bigger once the UK leaves? “We take biosecurity very seriously and are committed to doing all we can to prevent pests and invasive species reaching our borders,” a spokesperson told me. “UK environmental regulation won’t be weakened outside the EU.”
The Government could quickly incorporate EU regulations into UK law. Clamping down on harmful invaders threatening our native flora and fauna is a small sub-section in the next chapter of Britain’s island story. Yet the decisions taken in months to come could have a resounding impact on the future of our countryside, for better or worse.
Watch John on Countryfile on Sunday evenings on BBC One.