---
title: "Jersey faces biodiversity crisis after decades of neglect"
url: https://www.nsfw.info/jersey-biodiversity-crisis-decades-of-neglect/
published: 2026-11-03T17:30:53+00:00
modified: 2026-11-03T17:30:53+00:00
author: "Chief Editor"
categories: ["News"]
image: https://www.nsfw.info/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/jersey-biodiversity-crisis-decades-of-neglect-1024x572.webp
summary: "Jersey's environment scrutiny panel has heard the island faces a biodiversity crisis, with wildlife declining and climate funding at less than half the level ne"
publisher: NSFW (https://www.nsfw.info)
---

# Jersey faces biodiversity crisis after decades of neglect

**In brief:** A scrutiny panel has heard that Jersey is in a “biodiversity crisis”, with experts warning of invasive species, vanishing wildlife and decades of neglect. Concerns have also been raised that the Government of Jersey’s draft strategic policy failed to account for the natural environment, while a climate advisory body says current spending falls well short of what is needed to reach net zero by 2050.

## A Crisis Hiding in Plain Sight

The BBC reports that Jersey’s environment scrutiny panel has been told in stark terms that the island is experiencing a “biodiversity crisis”. Piers Sangan, who runs Sangan Island Conservation, painted a sobering picture: more invasive species, fewer native ones, and a broader decline in the island’s ecosystem. He warned that the government had a responsibility to ensure the environment did not “fall by the wayside”, describing it as a “fundamental part of our island”.

Sangan did not mince words about the historical record either. Jersey’s biodiversity strategy, he said, had been “put on the shelf” since the early 2000s, and the island had since lost animals including stoats. He described a “woeful lack of investment” in ecology, adding: “The environment is becoming quieter and, as someone who’s been looking at this day in, day out for the last 15 years, it’s becoming horribly noticeable.”

His concern extended to several bird species that, while still present and breeding, are failing to grow in number. “They are more or less extinct already and are likely to go extinct in the next few years,” he said. That is not the kind of sentence that should be easy to brush aside.

## Government Policy: Catching Up or Falling Behind?

Willie Peggie, the government’s Director of Natural Environment, told the panel that the Environment Department needed time and resources to produce a state of nature report, comparable to those already published in the UK, Guernsey and Alderney. Government officials are expected to release such a report in 2027, which would then inform a new biodiversity strategy. Whether that timeline represents urgency or inertia is, to put it diplomatically, a matter of perspective.

Deputy Hilary Jeune, who chairs the environment scrutiny panel, noted that ministers’ draft Common Strategic Policy did not take the natural environment into account at all. The panel subsequently worked with Environment Minister Senator Mary Le Hegarat on an amendment to address the omission. Jeune said biodiversity needed to be “front and centre”.

Le Hegarat acknowledged that the countryside needed to be managed properly, pointing to the rise in invasive species as a particular concern. “Everybody needs to manage the countryside together, and we’ll do the work and set out the policies and strategies in order to do so,” she said. Policies, she confirmed, are being worked on.

## The Money Question

Funding is where things get particularly uncomfortable for the government. Professor Liz Bentley, part of the Jersey Climate Council, told the panel that Jersey needs to spend £10 million per year to reach net zero by 2050. The current Climate Emergency Fund stands at £4 million annually, meaning the island is spending less than half of what the council considers necessary.

Professor Bentley acknowledged the financial pressures facing the government but warned that delayed action would cost more in the long run. “We need to consider it over decades, not over a four-year budget,” she said. “It’s about that long-term investment.”

Le Hegarat responded that ministers needed to be “very cautious” about spending. She was unable to say how much reaching net zero by 2050 would ultimately cost, though she expressed confidence that investing in the existing fund was a reasonable way forward. Whether £4 million a year constitutes a reasonable way forward, or simply a way of appearing to move while standing largely still, is a question the scrutiny panel appears keen to press.

On a more practical note, Joshua and Benjamin Voak, who work for the Jersey Grazing Project, told the panel that using cows and sheep to restore habitats was already yielding results. Joshua Voak noted that the environment had barely featured in the summer’s election campaign, despite what he described as “so many economic advantages to having a healthy environment”. His brother Benjamin highlighted biodiversity’s importance for air and water quality and habitat retention.

## The NSFW Perspective

There is something quietly damning about a biodiversity strategy that has been sitting on a shelf since the early 2000s. Jersey is a small island with a relatively contained environment, which ought to make conservation more manageable, not less. Instead, we have a government whose draft strategic policy apparently forgot to mention nature altogether, a climate fund running at less than half the recommended level, and a state of nature report that will not arrive until 2027. By which point, if Piers Sangan is right, a few more bird species will have quietly ticked over into local extinction.

To be fair to Senator Le Hegarat, she is at least engaging with the scrutiny panel and acknowledging the problem. But “we’ll set out the policies and strategies” is the kind of answer that sounds reassuring until you remember that the last strategy was shelved two decades ago. Jersey’s countryside deserves better than a promise of future paperwork.

*Source: [BBC News](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c8wy94ewzw03o)*