Prime Minister: Don't betray our wildlife's 'health service'

22 February 2006

Plans to make massive cuts to the UK's Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (CEH) [1] would devastate what amounts to a preventive health service for our wildlife. The Prime Minister should intervene and save the CEH.

This is the urgent message from the Campaign to Protect Rural England [2] as the public consultation on the future of this world-class network of study centres and scientists [3] reaches its critical stage.

Note for Editors

The Natural Environment Research Council meets on 8 March to decide on the fate of the CEH centres at Monks Wood, Cambridgeshire; Winfrith, Dorset; Oxford and Swindon.

Although the official consultation has now closed, the public can still register their concern by contacting the Chairman of NERC, Mr Rob Margetts CBE, at: Polaris House, North Star Avenue, Swindon SN2 1EU www.nerc.ac.uk

'Will the Prime Minister leave a legacy of a high quality, modern and effective "health service" [4] for our wildlife? Or will he allow the essential network of study bases, world-class scientists and their huge experience in "preventive health care" for wildlife to be thrown away? And just when we need them most,' said Tom Oliver, Head of Rural Policy at CPRE.

CPRE is calling on the Prime Minister to commit to retaining the CEH and its existing number of field study centres [5], multi-skilled scientific teams and their long-term research programmes, which cannot be undertaken effectively by universities. A decision on the future of the organisation is due on 8 March.

'Our wildlife faces an ever increasing range of threats, particularly from climate change, pollution and lower river flows. The Prime Minister says he cares about the effects of climate change. If he really does, he cannot let the people who are working to understand its effects on wildlife be lost and much of their work abandoned,' Tom Oliver, continued.

'This core group of scientists are at the cutting edge of work on the long-term effects of climate change and pollution on the health of our cherished birds, animals and plants. Their early warnings on the effects of climate change or pollution are invaluable in saving wildlife from decline. And a Government minister has acknowledged the importance of this work. This is the preventive health service for our wildlife.' [6]

'Seeing a rich variety of wildlife when out and about is greatly valued by the English people. Threatening that enjoyment and the sheer survival of many species would be madness. The Prime Minister should show leadership and save this key organisation while he still can', Tom Oliver concluded.

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NOTES FOR EDITORS

1. The governing body of the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), which reports to the DTI, has approved a plan for the future of the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (CEH). The plan involves a significant reduction in the core funding for the CEH, which, in the opinion of the NERC governing body, requires the closure of half of the CEH research sites and its existing headquarters, and the reduction of its total staff from 600 to 400.

2. CPRE, the Campaign to Protect Rural England, is a charity which promotes the beauty, tranquillity and diversity of rural England. We advocate positive solutions for the long-term future of the countryside. Founded in 1926, we have 60,000 supporters and a branch in every county. President: Sir Max Hastings. Patron: Her Majesty The Queen.

3. CEH is described on its own website as 'the UK's Centre of Excellence for research in the land and freshwater environmental sciences. CEH's staff have specialist skills in a wide range of environmental disciplines, ranging from the smallest scale (the gene) to the largest scale (whole Earth systems). (Its) research is aimed at improving understanding both of the environment as we see it today and the natural processes that underlie the Earth's support systems - for example climate & water resources. (It is) particularly interested in the impacts of human activity on natural environments. (It) aim(s) to generate workable solutions to today's pressing environmental problems.'

4. A key part of the origins of the CEH lie in the 1950s when in the early years of the Nature Conservancy (English Nature's predecessor) the widespread threat of persistent pesticides to wildlife was first suspected. Field study centres and teams of scientists with a broad range of expertise set to work to identify the cause of the mass death of birds in agricultural landscapes. Eventually, the most damaging pesticides were banned in the UK. More recently, the CEH has led the way with work on the possible effects of GM crops; acidification of river systems; the monitoring of the long term effects of money spent on agri-environment schemes on wildlife; farming to improve both wildlife and profitability; the national Biological Records Centre which monitors the state of all land and freshwater species except birds, and the national Butterfly Monitoring Scheme, amongst many other projects.

5. The English centres threatened with closure are: Monks Wood, Cambridgeshire; Winfrith, Dorset; Oxford; Swindon, Wiltshire (Headquarters) as well as Banchory in Scotland. The retained sites would be: Edinburgh, Lancaster; Bangor and Wallingford, Oxfordshire (the new Headquarters).

6. So serious is the threat to the long-term scientific monitoring of wildlife and climate change that the leader of the Opposition took up the issue at Prime Minister's Question time on 1 February 2006.

Mr. Cameron : But will the Prime Minister look at the case of the laboratories? The Under-Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the hon. Member for South Dorset (Jim Knight), said in a letter:
'The . . . closure . . . does not make sense, either scientifically or economically, whether considered at a national or a local level.'
Mr. Cameron : It was a simple question: is the Minister right? Sir David Attenborough has called those laboratories world leaders in biodiversity research. They make a crucial contribution to measuring the effects of climate change. I fear that the Prime Minister has not really considered the matter; will he go away and think about it, have a look at the evidence and come back to report to the House next week?
The Prime Minister: I do not agree. The Research Councils UK takes those decisions'.
Extracts from Hansard, 1 February, 2006

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