Amendment to UK’s Environmental Bill to preserve hedgehogs.
Former Transport Secretary of the United Kingdom, Chris Grayling has tabled an amendment to the Environmental Bill to give hedgehogs the status of ‘protected animals’ to preserve their declining numbers in the United Kingdom.
The amendment seeks to add hedgehogs to the list of protected animals under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, giving it the same level of protection as bats, badgers and otters. In doing so, developers will need to be acutely aware of hedgehog nesting sites when planning projects as developers will be under a legal obligation to conduct wildlife surveys to search for protected species which may be affected by the proposed development, and to reduce the risk of harm or disturbance to the protected species and their habitats from the building.
Chris Grayling affectionately stated: -
“It is Britain's favourite animal, its numbers are declining and it should be as well protected as any other popular but threatened British animal.”
According to a report by the People’s Trust for Endangered Species (PTES) and the British Hedgehog Preservation Society in 2018, there was a worrying decline the in number of hedgehogs in the UK with their numbers having fallen by 50% since 2000. A rough estimate shows that there were around 1.5 million hedgehogs across England, Scotland and Wales collectively, compared with about 30 million in the 1950s.
The proposed amendment is currently supported by 13 Conservative MPs.
In Hong Kong, the Environmental Impact Assessment Ordinance (Cap. 499) provides that persons seeking to construct or decommission designated projects must follow statutory environmental impact assessment (EIA) process and/or require environmental permits. Annex 16 of the Technical Memorandum provides guidelines for an ecological assessment to be conducted as part of an EIA. An ecological assessment will be required if the proposed development will affect habitats supporting significant population of wild fauna or flora that are, among others, listed in the IUCN Red List or listed under local legislation, for example, Wild Animals Protection Ordinance (Cap. 170).
Courtesy of Nicole Liang.
Main Sources: BBC News; The Independent
