New Licence to Manage and Control Invasive Alien Species

Natural England has introduced a new licence to manage and control certain non-native species. This licence covers the invasive alien animal and plant species of Union concern which are widely spread in England.

The licence allows you to keep, breed, transport (except when transporting for eradication), use or exchange, allow to grow, cultivate or reproduce and release species into the environment only for the purposes of eradication, control or containment of the species; or for public education, for example, in training or to raise public awareness to help identification.

You do not need a licence to carry out general management to eradicate a species, unless this involves any of the activities covered by this licence.

You must get agreement from the Environment Agency to trap signal crayfish and other non-native crayfish before you apply for this licence.

More information on the licence and how to apply is available at Gov.uk.