Death by a thousand failures – What DEFRA's governance means for wildlife

A new Protect the Wild report explores why wildlife keeps losing out as DEFRA balances nature against farming

Protect the Wild has released a new report about the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs’ (DEFRA) governance of the farming sector and how it is failing to protect wildlife. Here’s why we wrote it.

For years now, Protect the Wild has vigorously campaigned against the badger cull. It’s clear to us that killing badgers to tackle bovine tuberculosis (bTB) in cows is not supported by robust science. On the contrary, evidence has mounted in recent years that the badger cull is an exercise in futility – serving mainly as a distraction from what is really needed to address bTB: on-farm, cow-focused measures, such as better enforcement of biosecurity standards and a more rigorous bTB testing regime.

Yet, few politicians have been willing to follow the evolving science and categorically end the cull. Rather, they have clung to the policy, often while waving around research that shows drops in bTB rates in cows since culling began. What they generally fail to mention is that this research seldom grapples with what role badgers actually play in bTB transmission because it doesn’t probe the cause of those declines – whether they stem from improved cattle measures or from killing badgers. A 2022 peer-reviewed study did this and found that cow-focused interventions, not culling, are the likely drivers of any reductions in bTB.

To better understand this stubborn refusal to change course, Protect the Wild set out to examine how DEFRA governs the farming sector in England – and why wildlife too often pays the price as the department juggles its environmental responsibilities with its commitments to agriculture. Badgers may be the most visible casualties of this failure, but they are far from alone. Many other wild species lose out under the current system.

Our new report, Death by a Thousand Failures: A critique of DEFRA’s governance and its devastating toll on nature, is the result of this examination.

Governance fails to adequately safeguard wildlife against harm

The report identifies several factors that we believe contribute to poor outcomes for wildlife, including DEFRA’s proximity to industry actors, such as the NFU, and an imbalance in ministerial experience. It also finds that DEFRA operates a ‘carrots-and-sticks’ governance model in which the sticks are wielded like carrots, meaning that it leans heavily toward incentivising and partnering with the agricultural sector to achieve environmental benefits, rather than deterrents. This approach, which extends even to aspects of regulatory enforcement, is failing to adequately address the farming sector’s impact on wildlife and the environment.

The scale of non-compliance reveals the depth of the problem. In 2024/25, the Environment Agency (EA) recorded at least one breach in around half of all farm inspections aimed at assessing compliance with environmental regulations such as the Farming Rules for Water – a rate that the agency considers typical. The dairy sector stands out as a hotspot: Freedom of Information data shows that between 2022 and 2025, the EA found at least one non-compliance in around 70% of English dairy farm inspections annually, echoing 2020-21 figures previously reported by the Guardian. Meanwhile, nearly 7,000 breaches were identified on intensive animal farms subject to Environmental Permitting Regulations between 2015 and 2025 – representing 75% of inspections – as uncovered by MP Terry Jermy.

Some positive changes are occurring, such as an increase in inspection rates and improved compliance in some areas. But the government faces growing pressure to broaden and strengthen the regulatory regime to address its significant weaknesses.

Wildlife monitoring is insufficient and therefore fails to capture the full impact of agriculture on wildlife, as the report highlights. But the available evidence paints a troubling picture: declining wildlife populations, nutrient-polluted woodlands, degraded river systems, and climate impacts.

Of course, agriculture is not the only driver of environmental harm – water companies, developers, and other industries also share blame. But farming exerts a broad and sustained pressure on the natural world. With farmland covering 70% of the UK, the way the sector is governed will be pivotal to nature’s recovery, and to the future of England’s wildlife.

Badger cull is most visible symptom of a deeper problem

In producing this report, Protect the Wild hopes to shine a light on some of the institutional failures that we believe are letting down wildlife when it comes to farming governance – and to express our support for reforms that offer more robust safeguards.

What this report reveals is that the badger cull is only the most visible symptom of a deeper problem: a system that, at best, pursues an impossible balance, attempting to satisfy the demands of industrial farming while meeting the needs of wildlife and the environment. In practice, this approach has become a death by a thousand failures for wildlife – doing little to slow the UK’s nature crisis.

If DEFRA is serious about halting biodiversity loss and restoring nature, it must do better. The health of the nation’s wildlife – and the integrity of its environmental governance – depend on it.

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