Marine Conservation and Bat Ecology

HC Deb 02 December 1988 vol 142 c424W

Mr. Bermingham

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what measures are to be taken to safeguard work carried out on practical projects and by volunteers in marine conservation and bat ecology, formerly supported by the Natural Environmental Research Council funds; and if he will make a statement.

Mrs. Virginia Bottomley

I understand that the Natural Environment Research Council has made some staff reductions in areas which it judges to have lower priority. The reductions include one post concerned with bat ecology, in a project which has used volunteer labour. The council has not funded marine conservation work using volunteers in recent years. We will continue to rely on our statutory advisers, the Nature Conservancy Council, for advice on conservation matters, supplemented as necessary by research commissioned by the Department.