Photos and footage taken at the Cornwall Beaver Project - a Beaver Trust Reintroduction site. Eurasian beavers are to be given legal protection in England, making it illegal to deliberately capture, kill, disturb or injure beavers without a licence.
Beavers were hunted to extinction in the UK for their meat and fur around 400 years ago. However several releases have taken place across the UK over the last decade with the majority of the current English beaver population occurring on controlled and enclosed trial sites across the country, as well as on several wild populations on rivers where illegal releases have occurred.
The species has protected status in Europe and Scotland, and is listed under the European Habitats Directive. England is now due to follow suit in protecting beavers from October this year, however the expected official statement was delayed in parliament, leaving conservation organisations in the dark as to whether this impacts the planned change in protected status.
Photos and footage taken at the Cornwall Beaver Project - a Beaver Trust Reintroduction site. Beavers are ecosystem engineers and play a crucial role in creating thriving wetland ecosystems, as well as preventing flooding, increasing drought tolerance in at risk areas, and assisting in carbon capture. Studies have also demonstrated an increase in biodiversity in the release sites.
Although the legislation still requires for licensed release of beavers into controlled enclosures, it is hoped that the new protection laws will be the next step towards beavers being reintroduced into the wild.
