About Wild Justice

Why Wild Justice exists…


Wild Justice takes legal cases and advocates for a better deal for UK wildlife.

Species can’t take legal cases in their own names, they can’t write to MPs and they can’t sign petitions, but, together, we can stand up for wildlife using the legal system and seeking changes to existing laws.

What Wild Justice is…


Wild Justice is a not-for-profit company limited by guarantee. A not-for-profit company is one where the directors don’t benefit from the profits of the company and money raised is spent on the aims (called the ‘objects’) of the company.

The objects of Wild Justice are:

We decided not to set up a charity because that would limit some activities, eg campaigning against government policies, that we may want to carry out. We keep this decision under review.

What we do…


We take legal challenges against UK governments and their agencies, and we campaign for a better deal for wildlife.

To read more about our work on these subjects just click on the links:

Who we are…


Wild Justice has three directors. None of us is paid a salary. We are three friends who have worked together on campaigns and projects but now we want to do something bigger together and that’s why Wild Justice exists.  We’ve each got our separate jobs and activities outside Wild Justice, we don’t agree about everything, but we want to work together to make a difference for wildlife.  This is who we are…

MARK AVERY

Dr Mark Avery is an author, blogger and environmental campaigner.

Mark Avery said:

Wild Justice will take on public bodies to get a better deal for wildlife.  It’s a shame that we have to do this but we have little confidence that statutory bodies are fulfilling their functions properly. We aim to hold their feet to the fire in court. I’m reminded of what the great American environmental campaigner, Ansel Adams said ‘It is horrifying that we have to fight our own government to save the environment.’

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RUTH TINGAY

Dr Ruth Tingay is a conservationist, blogger and campaigner. She is a former International Director and Past President of the Raptor Research Foundation. Since 2010 she has been campaigning against the illegal persecution of birds of prey in the UK and she writes the influential Raptor Persecution UK blog.

Ruth Tingay said:

I know many people who despair about what’s happening to our wildlife but who also feel powerless to help, typically because access to justice can be prohibitively expensive and a daunting arena. Wild Justice provides an opportunity for ordinary citizens to fight back on behalf of wildlife, collectively helping us to challenge poor decisions or flawed policies that threaten to harm our wildlife. With so many potential cases, the difficulty for us will be to decide which ones to take on first.’.

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CHRIS PACKHAM

Chris Packham is a naturalist, nature photographer, television presenter and author. He was awarded a CBE for services to nature conservation in the 2019 New Year Honours List.

Chris Packham said:

Wild. Justice.  Because the wild needs justice more than ever before. The pressures wrought upon our wildlife have reached a crisis point and this is an essential response. The message is clear . . . if you are breaking the law, if the law is weak, if the law is flawed – we are coming for you. Peacefully, democratically and legally. Our simple premise is to work with the laws we’ve got to seek real justice for our wildlife, to reform, refine or renew those laws we have to ensure that justice can be properly realised. Our wildlife has been abused, has been suffering, exploited or destroyed by criminals for too long. Well, no longer. Wild Justice will at last be the voice of those victims and it will be heard . . . and justice will be served.‘.

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How you can help…


We don’t just want your money – we’d like your support please. Your active support. We will give you opportunities to speak out for nature through signing petitions, writing to your elected politician, spreading the word and taking part in scientific studies. You’ll hear about these opportunities through our free newsletter – please subscribe through the box at the foot of this page.

We don’t expect that everyone will be turned on by each one of our projects so you can pick and choose where you put your valuable time and effort. But we hope that we’ll give lots of people lots of opportunities to make a difference for wildlife.

Having said that, we need your money too please. We appreciate that not everyone can donate but our work will grind to a halt without donations so an occasional donation, or a regular one of any size, will help us keep going. A typical legal challenge costs over £40,000 and can be funded with one very large and generous donation or 2000 very generous donations of £20+ each. The largest single donation we have ever had was this one – of over £12,000 – but most of the donations we receive are less than £100 but they all add up. There are details of how to donate in another box just a little down the page.

FAQs


Coming soon – although not very soon because we wrote this ages ago! We’ll get around to it.