The political birder: Mark Avery
The appointment of Tony Juniper as Chair of Natural England was the cause of some celebration among conservationists. But how has he fared since?
The appointment of Tony Juniper as Chair of Natural England was the cause of some celebration among conservationists. But how has he fared since?
INaturalt’s two years since Tony Juniper became Chair of
England (NE). The honeymoon is well and truly over and it’s proven a bumpy ride for the finest environmental campaigner of his generation. NE was established in 2006 as an independent body, but gets most of its money from DEFRA so it’s a strange sort of independence. NE’s budget was slashed in 2010-11 and has never recovered. It’s undoubtedly a tough gig, although the post of Chair takes up just two days a week for which the incumbent is paid more than £50,000 per annum. I remember past Chairs of NE’s predecessor bodies with considerable admiration. In particular, Sir William Wilkinson, Barbara Young and Martin Doughty stood up for nature and stood out as conservation leaders in their statutory roles on issues as wide as site protection, genetically modified crops and raptor persecution. If anyone could emulate their impacts, even in these dire times with an uncaring Westminster government, then surely Tony Juniper could, with his background as Chief Executive of Friends of the Earth (FoE), a candidate for the Green Party in the 2010 general election and President of the Wildlife Trusts. He was one of us.
Tony now finds himself on the other side – I’d say the wrong side – of many debates with his former colleagues. He stepped down as President of the Wildlife Trusts, with a Badger as their logo, to be Chair of NE, which licenses the shooting and trapping of tens of thousands of Badgers. That’s quite a change. Tony has defended NE’s actions in licensing Badger killing, while the Wildlife Trusts describe the cull as ‘ineffective’ and have called for it to end.
High speed destruction
Those who remember Tony campaigning against the construction of the nine-mile Newbury bypass, and being on the side of a tiny snail of which most of us had never really
❝Tony now finds himself on the other side – I’d say the wrong side – of many debates from his erstwhile colleagues❞
heard, can only watch open mouthed at NE’s role in allowing HS2’s damaging activities along the 140-mile Phase 1 from
London to Birmingham, which are opposed by the Wildlife Trusts, RSPB, the Woodland Trust and a host of other wildlife groups. DEFRA’s recently announced measures to limit damaging burning of vegetation in the uplands were roundly condemned by green groups, with two other former FoE staff members, Craig Bennett (now of the Wildlife Trusts) describing them as “extremely embarrassing” for government and Guy Shrubsole (now of Rewilding Britain) saying the measures had “glaring loopholes”.
Tony’s former Green Party colleague, Natalie Bennett, said in the House of Lords that the government should: “Do it again, and do a proper job this time.” Yet Tony described DEFRA’s plans as a “hugely welcome announcement which will see better protections for our globally important peatlands”.
Tony has also supported NE’s licensing of brood meddling of Hen Harriers which the RSPB regards as disastrous and, alongside my own legal challenge, has gone to the Court of Appeal to challenge.
It’s difficult for me to imagine that Tony is comfortable with the positions he feels he now must defend, but I don’t really know. Tony’s website says he is a campaigner and leading British environmentalist, but many of his friends and erstwhile colleagues believe those days are past – he is a lost leader. We miss the Tony Juniper we once knew. ■