Uncertainty about the impact of the UK’s vote to leave the EU extends to the natural world. Matt Jackson from the Berks, Bucks & Oxon Wildlife Trust highlights what the risks are, and what we might do about it.

The outcome of EU Referendum leaves an inevitable period of uncertainty for all of us, especially as the arrangements for Britain’s departure are yet to be agreed.

The biggest problem for the natural environment is the one we always face: making sure it isn’t forgotten about.

Despite the fact that the natural environment underpins all our lives – from the places we live in, to the air that we breathe – the need to protect it is often woefully low on our agenda.

The European Union has been a significant player in keeping our environment clean and healthy. There are two major ways that it still influences our wildlife.

Firstly, protection of the natural environment across Europe has always been a focus of the EU, and there are two key reasons for that: pollution and wildlife know no borders and therefore regulations have to be applied across all member states.

It’s obvious that solutions to tackle marine and air pollution need to be led by governments working together. Wildlife also disregards borders; so many of our iconic species, from cuckoos to bats, travel large distances across many countries.

One of the EU’s main functions has been to make sure that regulation, unpopular as it often is, is applied even-handedly. That way business, industry and governments all work to the same standards of protection in each member country.

For wildlife, the Habitats and Birds Directives are crucial in ensuring that key areas and vulnerable species, such as the otter and hazel dormouse, are the beneficiaries of legal protection, for themselves and their habitats. Cothill Fen near Abingdon is a Special Area of Conservation protected under the EU Habitats Directive.

The second key area of influence has been in developing an extensive system of agri-environment schemes.

An early preoccupation of the single market was to support and subsidise farming. The initial focus was producing enough food to meet the needs of a growing European population.

However, politicians soon realised that public money, the subsidies paid to land managers, could be used to generate public goods; the natural habitats that provide places for wildlife to thrive.

A proportion of the EU’s agricultural subsidy payments have been put into schemes that encourage landowners and farmers to look after their natural environment for wildlife. Over £900m is budgeted for Countryside Stewardship payments to UK farmers between 2015 and 2020.

One of the criticisms of the EU’s record on the environment has been that these stewardship schemes can be very broad-brush, and don’t always have the outcomes they aim for. For instance the Common Agricultural Policy is often blamed for the heavily sheep-grazed uplands in the UK.

In the immediate future none of this will change, at least in theory. While the UK remains a member state of the European Union our government will still be required to protect wildlife to the same degree as the other European members.

UK farmers, and indeed wildlife organisations (BBOWT’s habitat management work is supported through agri-environment grants) will still be able to apply for grant-aid if they are managing land for wildlife.

I say in theory, because the uncertainty that the referendum result has generated spreads to these issues too. We don’t know what the timetable will be for exiting the EU and how this will affect regulations.

If the UK government doesn’t follow the Habitats and Birds Directives, will there be time to take a case through the European Court of Justice? Agri-environment agreements run for five years; who will foot the bill after UK withdrawal?

Further into the future the risks for the environment increase. Although European laws are written into the UK’s own processes, very often this is as regulations rather than statutory law, which means they can easily be changed and weakened.

Although there are risks, there are also opportunities. The UK Government was already planning to review and simplify our wildlife laws.

This gives Wildlife Trusts and other environmental NGOs the perfect opportunity to intervene. If we’re able to gain public support we could protect more land for wildlife, retain good subsidies for farmers and see more of our declining species protected. We’re going to be busy.

Find out more about the work of the Berks, Bucks & Oxon Wildlife Trust at bbowt.org.uk and how you can get involved.