Endangered Species (Hansard, 13 December 2000)

§ Mr. Mullin

The UK Biodiversity Action Plan identifies 575 priority species for conservation action. The available evidence indicates that focused initiatives for endangered species, like the UK Biodiversity Action Plan, are being effective in halting the declines of endangered species through targeted conservation action, although the evidence suggests that there remains a general decline in UK biodiversity.

Monitoring of UK flora and fauna is not comprehensive and precise figures for percentage change of populations of particular species are not always available. Comprehensive monitoring programmes are often put in place only when a species decline is significant enough to warrant conservation action to preserve that species. The National Biodiversity Network, for which my Department has provided financial support, will provide the mechanism to enable such ecological information to become more accessible.

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(a)Mammals

Few detailed data on population change are available for mammals, although my Department, with its scientific advisers the Joint Nature Conservation Committee, is currently undertaking work to develop an integrated monitoring system for mammals. By way of illustration, successive surveys of England indicate a partial recovery of the otter population, although in contrast the water vole has undergone a severe population crash.

(b)Birds

The UK's endangered birds species have experienced mixed fortunes in recent decades. A recently calculated index of the populations of rare breeding birds has more than doubled since 1970, reflecting the success of targeted conservation action on species such as the red kite, cirl bunting and stone curlew, taken by both statutory and non-government organisations. By contrast, an index composed of the populations trends of 20 farmland bird species has declined by 40 per cent. since the mid-1970s. The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food has recently adopted a target to reverse the decline in farmland birds within its Public Service Agreement.

Evidence indicates varying levels of decline among all the UK's amphibians and reptiles, although precise figures for declines for widespread species are not available. The main causes have been the loss of, damage to and fragmentation of habitats. For scarce species with restricted ranges, more detailed data are available where positive conservation measures have been put in place and these data indicate that these measures are being effective in halting decline. English Nature is currently engaged in projects with partner organisations to address the need for monitoring schemes so that a more quantitative assessment of status can be undertaken.

(e)Fish

Freshwater fish populations are under threat from a wide range of sources, although few species have good national records of population status. As an example, the white-clawed crayfish has suffered heavily from the particular problem of crayfish plague, a disease introduced by non-native crayfish species used in aquaculture.