You must have a licence to release beavers into the wild.

Find out about applying for a licence from Natural England to release beavers into the wild. 

The wild release criteria are covered in:

You must read both pieces of guidance before you apply for a licence.

Natural England will only consider your wild release project if the presence of beavers will support one or more of these positive outcomes:

Natural England will not consider projects in locations where the presence of beavers is likely to cause significant negative effects. This would be when negative effects cannot be avoided, mitigated or accepted, and far outweigh the expected positive effects. You must consider how releasing beavers could benefit or negatively affect:

Natural England will look at how you propose to reduce any risks and what the likely outcome would be if they allow your project to go ahead.

There may be higher risk of beaver activities affecting:

You should avoid locations where beavers would have a substantial negative effect on vulnerable or endangered species or habitats, such as affecting the integrity of a designated site.

As part of your application for a licence, you will have to describe your project plan.

Your project plan must address the requirements set out under each of these criteria headings: 

Your project plan must normally cover at least a 10-year period .

Natural England could reject your licence application if your project does not meet all the criteria.

In your project plan, you must identify the purpose of the wild release and define your project’s future vision, goals and objectives.

You should consult experts and provide clear evidence on the design, benefits and risks of your project.

You can find out more in chapter 3 of the reintroduction code.

You must show how your project will follow the law. You must identify the permissions you need and how you will get them.

You can find out more in chapter 5 of the reintroduction code, and in the conservation translocations guidance for when you need a wildlife licence.

Plan for success by choosing an appropriate donor population and project area. Create a release strategy as part of your project plan.

Any beaver you source for your wild release project must have been born in Great Britain (England, Scotland or Wales). This is to prevent the introduction of the Echinococcus multilocularis tapeworm and other exotic parasites from mainland Europe.

When sourcing and releasing beavers, you must liaise with the Beaver Trust who hold the national Eurasian beaver studbook. This will protect the long-term genetic health of the population. You can contact the Beaver Trust at [email protected].

Your project area must be able to sustain your founder population. There must also be capacity to sustain a higher population as the beavers colonise and expand their territory.

You must provide information about your project area in your plan, including:

Use Catchment Data Explorer to find bodies of water and river basin management plans in your project area.

You must also justify why you chose your project area and its suitability for beaver wild release, including:

Add maps to your project plan that show the location of the project area and release areas.

Your founder population must have at least 3 unrelated beaver families. You should normally release beavers in pairs or family groups. You must release each pair or family at a separate release area within the project area. 

Your release strategy should include:

You must explain the type of release you plan to use. There are 2 types of release:

Before your release, you may need to keep beavers in a temporary bio-secure holding facility. You will need to consider details of the project holding facilities in your release strategy, including:

You can find out more in chapter 5 and chapter 6 of the reintroduction code. 

You must consider the effect your beaver wild release could have on: 

In your project plan, you will need to provide information about any significant anticipated benefits and risks, for example:

If present in your initial release areas, you will need to provide maps that show:

Check this information with tools such as: 

You must complete a biodiversity risk assessment for any negative effects that your project could cause. This should include:

You must explain how you will deal with risks you identify both inside the project area and in surrounding areas. Any mitigation and management must be proportionate to the level of risk.

You can find out more about risk assessments and biodiversity outcomes in chapter 4 and chapter 7 of the reintroduction code. 

You must consider the socio-economic effect of your wild release project. Think about the effects on the project area, places the beaver population could spread to and other surrounding areas.

In your project plan, you must describe how your release project will interact with:

Explain how the benefits of the release may change as the project progresses.

If present in your initial release areas, you must provide maps showing the location of any:

You must complete a socio-economic risk assessment for any negative effects your project could cause. This should include:

For example, in the risk assessment you could consider:

You can find out more about risk assessments and socio-economic outcomes in chapter 4 and chapter 8 of the reintroduction code. 

If you’re planning to apply for a licence to release beavers into the wild, you must engage with a variety of stakeholders. Read about planning stakeholder engagement for beaver release projects.

Projects need to show who will make sure the project plan is carried out and that they have enough funding. 

Your project must:

Other roles in the project are optional. 

Your project steering group will oversee the implementation of the project. The group must include representatives relevant to beaver wild release in your catchment area. 

The local beaver officer will report to the project steering group. Their role is to provide advice and support to deliver the project outcomes. 

In your project plan, you must include an estimate of the total budget for the project and a summary of the allocation of funds to:

You must identify the sources of your funding and show whether it is confirmed or provisional. You will also need to provide: 

You can find out more in reintroduction code. 

Natural England will not approve your project unless you have a clear plan for how you will monitor and evaluate:

The plan must cover the lifetime of your project.

Your plan must be specific to your project and consider the level of benefit and risk identified in your risk assessments. Your licence conditions might include additional monitoring. This will be assessed by Natural England on a case-by-case basis.

You must collect baseline data from your project area before you release beavers. Your application pack will include information on gathering this data. This is to make sure you can compare data from before and after release.

To help you plan, read about the standard methods for monitoring beavers. You will also receive guidance on monitoring project benefits and risks in the licence application pack.

By gathering baseline and post-release monitoring data using standard methods, the data will help both your project and other projects nationwide.

You can find out more in chapter 11 of the reintroduction code.

Projects must be carefully managed and have clear strategies in place for when the project reaches its goals or is failing.

You must have a management plan in place for the duration of your project. 

Your plan must explain:

Once beavers have been deemed fit and healthy for release, they are considered to be wild animals and not the property of landowners or wild release projects. However, projects should try to mitigate negative effects either caused or likely to be caused from their release.

Your project must have an exit strategy that covers both successful delivery of the project, and early termination due to failure or other factors.

Chapter 12 of the reintroduction code tells you what your exit strategy must include.

You must consult with Natural England before you start your exit strategy.

You’ll need an exit strategy if your project has completed its goals, for example when:

• people are used to living alongside beavers knowing that efficient mechanisms are in place to support stakeholders

You’ll need an exit strategy if your project cannot continue. Natural England will specify the circumstances where you would need to start this process. For example: 

• the welfare of the beavers becomes compromised – for example, by illegal persecution
• your project runs out of funding, and you cannot find any more
• beavers are causing significant negative effects that you cannot manage
• a disease risk is present, such as the tapeworm Echinococcus multilocularis
• serious or persistent non-compliance with licence conditions

In this case you will need to consider what will happen to the beavers and any key milestones.

If you have questions about the criteria or application process:

Email: [email protected]