UK Under International Pressure to Protect Wildlife
9/7/99
*******************************
RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
Title: UK Under International Pressure to Protect Wildlife
Source: World Wide Fund for Nature
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: September 7, 1999
LONDON - Failure by the British government to protect enough areas
under wildlife law will come under European scrutiny this week,
British environmental groups said.
"Around the country, sites which should have been protected under
European law are suffering loss and damage according to official
data," the World Wide Fund for Nature said.
Both the WWF and Friends of the Earth said the government should make
a commitment to protect Britain's beleaguered wildlife and establish
more conservation sites.
An environmental meeting of eight Atlantic countries will meet in
Dublin from September 6-8, forcing Britain to defend its limited list
of conservation areas from scrutiny by the European Commission and an
independent assessor, the WWF said.
In a period of farming crisis in Britain, farmers should be rewarded
for managing more land for wildlife, the WWF added.