Two mega prisons in Essex, England, planning to be built, have ignited an uproar among environmental campaigners across the country. Campaigners say that the prisons will be built on natural habitats for rare wildlife in the country. As a result, the British government has been accused of ignoring its commitment to the Environmental Act, which offers the protection of biodiversity. 

If the proposals are approved, the government will build the prisons in 2023 on the Wethersfield site, Essex, which is home to 74 mostly endangered species of birds - including turtle doves, lapwings, and grey partridge - in addition to 75,000 trees and shrubs. Ancient woodland, warty newts, and rare orchids are also threatened if the plan were to come into effect. 

One of the environmental activists, Rosie Pearson, commented on the matter, hoping that a local campaign would cancel the government's plans and rather allow the area to be restored back to its uncultivated state. 

Seven local councils have mobilized to create a community action group, named Swap: Stop Wethersfield Airfield Prisons.

Pearson is also mobilizing landowners and local citizens to come up with an alternative plan which would protect biodiversity and the local environment from construction. 

She continued, “We are in the process of appointing experts to assist in the campaign, and we are working on a better alternative – to see the land sold to a rewilding buyer. We would love to see the site protected. There is a farm adjoining the airfield which has been bought recently for rewilding.”

While environmental activists foresee a disaster, the government sees a profit. 

Victoria Prentis, the Minister of Environment, in the 2020 planning document, said, “Our plans, if successful, would bring many benefits to the local community, such as hundreds of jobs during construction, careers within the prison sector, and an increased spend in local businesses.”

Emma Marsh, the Director for the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, said, “We cannot keep pushing nature into smaller and smaller spaces and demand it fits in with our plans. Across England, our wildlife is disappearing and wild spaces that are providing a refuge for our rarest species during the nature and climate emergency are under threat."

Marsh continues to say that nature should be included in governmental conversations: “Our leaders in Westminster championed the Environment Act for delivering the world’s first legally binding targets for halting the decline of wildlife, and yet only a few weeks after being granted royal assent we now need to see nature included in all decision making, including planning, especially when compensation land could take a decade or longer to replace what has been lost under concrete.”

Although James Cleverly, a member of the parliament, told The Guardian that no formal planning has been lodged in concerning the prison-construction proposals, this is not the first attempt at destroying nature for profit. 

Recently, Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro has forcibly removed indigenous populations from the Amazon in order to monetize the land for agriculture, mining, and other industries which could bring profit. 

“It is a shame. It is a crime,” Márcio Astrini, executive secretary of the Climate Observatory told The Associated Press. “We are seeing the Amazon rainforest being destroyed by a government which made environmental destruction its public policy.”

Read more: Brazil’s Amazon Hits Its Worst Deforestation Level in 15 Years.