What UK Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 (c.69): Protection of Wild Birds, Animals, Plants and SSSIs requires
The Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 (c. 69) is the principal nature conservation statute for Great Britain, protecting wild birds, animals, and plants and providing for the designation of sites of special scientific interest, administered by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the statutory nature conservation bodies and enforced by the police. Section 1 protects wild birds, their nests, and eggs, making it an offence intentionally to kill, injure, or take any wild bird or to take, damage, or destroy the nest of a wild bird while in use or being built or to take or destroy an egg. Section 5 prohibits certain methods of killing or taking wild birds, and section 6 restricts the sale of live or dead wild birds and eggs. Section 9 protects certain wild animals listed in Schedule 5, and section 11 prohibits certain methods of killing or taking wild animals. Section 13 protects wild plants listed in Schedule 8, making it an offence to pick, uproot, or destroy them. Section 14 restricts the introduction of new species, and section 16 confers power to grant licences. Section 21 sets out the penalties, forfeitures, and other consequences of offences. Section 28 provides for sites of special scientific interest, requiring notification by the nature conservation body and restricting operations likely to damage the special interest. The Act is the foundational species and habitat protection regime in domestic law.
Pillar: Water & Environmental Resources · Authority: UK Parliament / Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) / Natural England · Version: 1.0.0 · Last updated:
Primary source: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1981/69/contents
SHA-256 integrity: 6e7d171180cf09374df674f6bae82f6514f7a8095d8fd1b74ac9de3ca975f1b5
Primary Citations — 8 traced to source
- Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, section 1 - protection of wild birds, their nests and eggs.
- Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, section 5 - prohibition of certain methods of killing or taking wild birds.
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