Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs
Seacole Building 
2 Marsham Street London
SW1P 4DF

Dear DEFRA staff,

At a time when many of you have decided to go on strike action, we are writing to you in support and in acknowledgment that you are doing a crucial job in difficult conditions.

Our government’s misrule is a major obstacle to our ability to protect and restore nature. This is despite the clarity of the scientific evidence and despite overwhelming public opinion. You are dependant on ministers who refuse to align their priorities with scientific guidance because they are more concerned with the interests of powerful polluting industries. 

We recognise that you work tirelessly to implement policies to restore nature, and to support farmers in their transition to more regenerative agricultural practices. However, recent government policies have undermined your efforts at every turn, breaking their promises, greenwashing the narrative with twisted statistics, blocking public messaging on the right course of action and cutting funding for environmental monitoring and enforcement ‘to the bone’ . 

The latest bill going through Parliament is yet another example of the relentless government attack on nature. Five hundred and seventy vital environmental laws could be taken off the statute books. This means that away from the scrutiny of Parliament and the public, ministers will be allowed to remove protective laws or diminish their effectiveness.

At a time when the UK’s biggest conservation charities are putting the government on notice, our plea to you today is to stand up for the environment and the future and to speak out when necessary. We are scientists from all areas - including climate, ecology, biology, physics and psychology, some of us have advised your department, and one is a former DEFRA employee. We are not here to criticise you, but to demand you be given the necessary power you need to protect nature.  

Thank you,

Scientists for Extinction Rebellion