Will release cash for threatened species

Goldsmith said the Government should turn its attention to its own overseas aid budget. “The easiest and most effective tool at our disposal in this country is our aid budget – £14.5billion and growing every year,” he said. “We need to see a significant chunk of that money spent on restoring, repairing and protecting eco-systems and nature.”

Committed environmentalist Mr Goldsmith said the world is taking too little action to stop what some experts have described as a mass extinction.

Species including elephants, tigers and rhinos are heading for extinction due to poaching and the destruction of their habitats. Closer to home many species of UK farmland and woodland birds are also in dramatic decline.

Mr Goldsmith said: “If we need a hundred units of action we’re probably seeing two or three units at the moment.

“But as it happens a big chunk of those two or three units are emanating from the United Kingdom.” He said the UK leads the world in marine conservation and clamping down on the illegal wildlife trade, but it lags behind other countries in the amount it spends on biodiversity.

Joanna Elliott, Senior Director at Fauna & Flora International, said the world has the resources to prevent extinctions and for humans and wildlife to live in harmony.

She said: “There is enough space out there for animals and people to coexist.”