What UK Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981: Species Protection, Invasive Species and SSSIs requires
The Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 (c. 69) is the principal UK statute for the protection of wild birds, animals and plants and for the conservation of designated habitats, enforced by the police and statutory nature conservation bodies (Natural England, NatureScot and Natural Resources Wales) under DEFRA policy. Part I, section 1 protects wild birds, their nests and eggs, making it an offence intentionally to kill, injure or take a wild bird, or to take, damage or destroy an active nest or eggs, with special penalties for birds listed in Schedule 1; section 4 sets exceptions and section 16 confers the power to grant licences for otherwise prohibited acts. Section 9 protects certain wild animals listed in Schedule 5 against killing, injuring, taking, possession and disturbance, and section 13 protects wild plants listed in Schedule 8 against picking, uprooting and destruction. Section 14 prohibits releasing or allowing to escape into the wild any animal not ordinarily resident in Great Britain, and planting or causing certain invasive non-native plants to grow in the wild. Enforcement is supported by wildlife inspectors and associated powers (sections 18A-18F) and a general enforcement provision (section 19), with penalties and forfeiture under section 21. Part II provides for sites of special scientific interest (SSSIs): under section 28 and the following sections (28A-28S) conservation bodies notify SSSIs, specify operations likely to damage the special interest, and owners, occupiers and public bodies must not carry out listed operations without consent, with offences for damaging an SSSI. The protected lists are set out in the Schedules - Schedule 1 (birds protected by special penalties), Schedule 5 (protected animals) and Schedule 8 (protected plants).
Pillar: Water & Environmental Resources · Authority: UK Parliament / Natural England, NatureScot and Natural Resources Wales (DEFRA policy) · Version: 1.0.0 · Last updated:
Primary source: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1981/69/contents
SHA-256 integrity: 3d1cc90ffdcb5c26f73e5138e56a7324bc4f1de073b2eb4bb5d6965d12e392d3
Primary Citations — 8 traced to source
- Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 (c. 69), Section 1 - protection of wild birds, their nests and eggs, with special penalties for Schedule 1 birds.
- Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, Section 4 - exceptions to sections 1 and 3; Section 16 - power to grant licences.
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