what is stopping change for wildlife?

The situation is not likely to improve for wildlife until the law and policy changes to make crimes against them become ‘notifiable’ and counted by the Home Office.

Offences that are not notifiable are recorded as miscellaneous, and so are difficult to measure. This makes them less of an incentive to investigate even though there is strong evidence for links between some wildlife offenders and serious organised crime.

Such potential links have been documented by many sources over the years including the NSPCC, WWF and TRAFFIC International

Associated criminality has been found to include drugs, firearms, property, violence and disorder related. 22

Making Wildlife Matter

Changing the law and the policy approach so that wildlife offences are notifiable, and ensuring proper resourcing is essential to make wildlife crime a priority in the UK . There is a long history of concern around the priority afforded to wildlife crime.

Naturewatch surveys as early as 2005 of police wildlife crime officers – with

87% of forces responding – agreed that serious wildlife crimes should be notifiable. And NGO presentations from 2012 onwards to the Environmental Audit Committee called for this type of crime to be more formally recordable.