Culture wars by ministers over the reintroduction of animals such as the beaver and the lynx must end if we are to restore nature in England, the head of the government’s taskforce on the issue has said.

Dr Andy Clements, an ornithologist who helped establish the government regulator Natural England, runs the species reintroduction taskforce, and he’s well placed to do so. He was one of those behind the hugely successful reintroduction of red kites into England.

He said he was frustrated by the debate over reintroducing species because it was based on “anecdote, not evidence”, when it is clear that increasing the abundance of rare and locally extinct species by releasing them into the wild can help restore nature.