Skip to main content

London, United Kingdom | AFP

Beavers will soon be released into waterways in England under a new scheme launched on Friday, signalling a return to the wild for an animal once hunted to extinction.

It’s a win for wildlife campaigners seeking to restore England’s depleted countryside — and a triumphant turnaround for the dam-building rodents, which until recently had been absent for hundreds of years.

The UK’s environment department said Eurasian beaver releases would be carefully managed and the first are expected to be set free in southwest England soon.

Beavers went extinct in Britain in the 16th century when they were sought after for their fur, meat and special sacs, which produce a leathery scent prized by perfume makers.

Small populations have been reintroduced in enclosures in recent years as part of a wider “rewilding” drive, and following escapes and illegal releases around 500 are already thought to be living in the wild in England.

Image: Close-Up Portrait of a European Beaver in Nature (s. environment, wildlife)
Credit: Matej Bizjak | Pexels

Biologists consider beavers a “keystone species” because they reshape their environment with dams and pools that benefit other wildlife, as well as fending off floods and droughts.

But their reintroduction has been a sticky topic in Britain, where farmers are worried about the animals’ impact on their land.

The head of the National Farmers’ Union, Tom Bradshaw, has argued landowners need the right to use “lethal control” if the beavers “end up in the wrong place”.

Restoring the natural world

The new scheme specifies that “as a last resort, beavers may be trapped and translocated or lethally controlled”.

Each project would need to supply a 10-year plan to support the animals’ return to the wild, while the government has also promised help for farmers who make space for beavers on their land.

The UK is one of the world’s most nature-depleted countries and has lost almost half of its natural species in recent decades, according to a 2021 parliamentary report.

Nature minister Mary Creagh said: “Reintroducing beavers to the wild is a critical milestone for this government’s plan to protect and restore our natural world.”

Roisin Campbell-Palmer of the Beaver Trust, a charity that backs the animal’s reintroduction, said it was a “landmark moment” and called for widespread licence granting.

But she said England was generations behind the rest of Europe”, where schemes have helped beavers reestablish themselves in countries including Belgium, France, Germany, Spain and Switzerland.

The protected Purbeck Heaths landscape in Dorset is tipped to be the site for the first English release but no date has yet been given.

lcm/har/gil

© Agence France-Presse

Article Source:
Press Release/Material by AFP
Featured image credit: Matej Bizjak | Pexels

Companies that mitigate climate change reduce their cost of capital
Companies that mitigate climate change reduce their cost of capitalClimate

Companies that mitigate climate change reduce their cost of capital

Going green pays off. New research shows that when companies disclose their environmental impact—and work to mitigate it—they earn investor trust. By Hidemichi Fujii |…
SourceSourceJuly 8, 2024 Full article
US shuns climate science meeting as UN warns ‘time is not on our side’
Image: Landscape in Hangzhou
US shuns climate science meeting as UN warns ‘time is not on our side’News

US shuns climate science meeting as UN warns ‘time is not on our side’

Paris, France | AFP US representatives are not at a key climate science meeting in China, a source told AFP on Monday, sitting out a…
SourceSourceFebruary 24, 2025 Full article
World greets 2025 after sweltering year of Olympics, turmoil, and Trump
Penguin standing in a sign of 2025
World greets 2025 after sweltering year of Olympics, turmoil, and TrumpNewsClimate

World greets 2025 after sweltering year of Olympics, turmoil, and Trump

Paris, France | AFP (Updated) - Revellers across the world ushered in 2025 on Wednesday, with huge crowds waving goodbye to the old year that…
SourceSourceJanuary 1, 2025 Full article