A report in the Guardian suggests alarming proposals to cut the budgets of the new Natural England agency before it even begins its work. The new agency would be the successor to English Nature and thus the prime funder and co-ordinator of biodiversity work in England.

The Guardian says:

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs was in financial crisis last night after being told to cut its budget by nearly £200m over the next six months. The Guardian has learned that the 7% savings are expected to bite deeply into flood defence work, nature conservation and canal repair schemes as well as a host of scientific bodies and research groups. Some of the most swingeing cuts will be borne by the Environment Agency, which is expected to cut £14.9m on flood defences and £9m on environmental protection...

...£12m is being cut from Natural England, the flagship conservation organisation, due to take over from the Countryside Agency in October. In a private letter to the environment secretary, David Miliband, seen by the Guardian, Sir Martin Doughty, the new chairman, said "the scale of these cuts risks the wheels coming off the organisation even before it reaches October's launchpad"...

The cost-cutting has been ordered largely to make up for losses incurred in a disastrous revamp of the farm subsidy system.

This is a matter of grave concern. English Nature has always been an important source of funds for those parts of biodiversity work which cannot be done by charities and lottery-funded projects. It's not impossible to get money and public support, and perhaps even the sponsorship of a willing company, for big, glamourous wildlife projects, such as the impressive sponsorship of the National Forest by many companies including Rolls Royce, Alliance & Leicester, and Severn Trent Water. But who picks up the obscure, the tiny, the unattractive but just as important parts of our biodiversity heritage? In many cases it is English Nature - stepping in with sometimes tiny amounts of money to make a big difference to our natural heritage. For the cost of a few yards of road an entire species action plan can be created and implemented. The Ranger, like most working in his field, is well accustomed to making small sums go a long way, by making them up with volunteer time and goodwill. Examples of the sort of projects which might not happen in the future include the following selections from the English Nature archive:

A frog with a distinctive Norfolk accent which became extinct in England in the 1990s will be returned to the county...

An extinct plant called Interrupted brome has been returned to the wild, 30 years after it was last seen...

Natterjack toads, black grouse and cirl bunting are among rare species that may be saved by nearly £4 million funding from Defra...

On 15 June 2005, thirty dormice, born and raised as part of a captive breeding programme, were released at a secret location on the Chatsworth Estate, the Derbyshire home of the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire...

...and many more

Biodiversity is cheap. It's often pretty simple and uncontroversial too. People like it. It is impossible to fund all the necessary work from non-public sources. So why does it always have to take such a kicking when it comes to cutting public funding?