Why wildlife campaigner Mark Avery 'will never forgive' UK's conservation groups' 'feeble' leadership

                                                 

Dr Avery: Leadership 'hid away'

AUTHOR and blogger Mark Avery has rapped  Britain's leading wildlife conservation organisations for their 'timid' approach to the big environmental issues of the day.

In particular, he slams them - with the exception of the Wildlife Trusts - for remaining 'eerily silent' in the run-up to the referendum on Britain's membership of the EU.

In a book to be published next month, Dr Avery writes: "There is no doubt that the  debate was of huge importance to wildlife conservation because so much of our wildlife legislation had been formed during our years of EU membership.

"And the writing  was on the wall that Brexit would lead to watering down of protection for species and habitats."

The author, a former Director of Conservation at the RSPB, said he will "never forgive" the leadership of these  organisations for being so 'feeble' during the long-running debate.

He continues: "They hid away on the biggest environmental issue of their lives - when leadership was needed, it was absent."

Nor the does the Northamptonshire-based author stop with Brexit.

In a chapter headed Why are we failing so badly?, he accuses conservation group leaders of "thinking that they can solve all wildlife's problems by strutting through the corridors of power in Whitehall, Cardiff, Belfast or Edinburgh.

"They look as if they are part of the Establishment rather than trying to change the world.

"We have a conservation movement that is too timid in its criticism of governments across the UK for their inaction and failure. Such timidity reduces the movements ability to have any leverage with political events.

“Too much energy is spent commenting on what government is  doing rather than telling government what it ought to be doing.

“Our wildlife organisations used to set the agenda for government action. They were once leaders but now, too often, they are mere followers.”

Dr Avery's controversial comments come in a 256-page paperback, Reflections, to be published at £20 on July 4 by Pelagic Publishing.

* A review of Reflections will appear in The Wryneck post publication of the title.