On Wednesday, government ministers opted to continue funding the National Wildlife Crime Unit, a police bureau which seeks to prevent wildlife crime at home and abroad. The UK’s National Wildlife Crime Unit has been guaranteed until 2016.

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The news comes in advance of next week's high-level Illegal Wildlife Trade summit in London. The event, to be hosted by Prime Minister David Cameron and Prince William, will bring together representatives of over 50 countries and international agencies to discuss how to combat the huge and growing illegal trade in wildlife products which threatens the future of many endangered species in many parts of the world.

The news was welcomed by wildlife groups. Mark Jones, Executive Director of Humane Society International UK, commented, "Regrettably, our British wildlife fall victim to all sorts of unscrupulous criminal activity and cruelty. The National Wildlife Crime Unit does an absolutely vital job investigating illegal persecution, on the front-line protecting our wild species against such things illegal hare coursing, badger baiting, wild bird trapping and poisoning of our birds of prey."

However, in March last year, the government rejected recommendations made by the Parliamentary Environmental Audit Committee to "give funding certainty for the critically important National Wildlife Crime Unit" and make possession of the main poison used to kill birds of prey illegal.

EAC chair Joan Walley said at the time that "The Government has missed an opportunity to take two simple measures to protect important wildlife threatened by poachers and criminals in the UK. It has failed to follow Scotland's lead in criminalising possession of carbofuran - the main poison used to kill birds of prey [and] it has refused to provide the long-term financial certainty that the National Wildlife Crime Unit needs."

On Thursday, HSI's Mark Jones added, "Financial uncertainty has been hanging over the NWCU for some time so we are delighted that the government is now providing funding security. We urge the government to go even further by implementing the Environmental Audit Committee's recommendations, in particular to follow Scotland's lead by appointing specialist wildlife crime prosecutors, and to ensure that sentencing for wildlife crime is sufficient to act as a deterrent."

Amongst the EAC's recommendations made in October 2012 was that the Westminster government follow the example of their Scottish counterparts and introduce 'vicarious liability', which would make landowners responsible for what happens on their estates. Ministers responded that they would watch how well the new law works in Scotland; Joan Walley urged that they should "also look at how well the tougher law in Scotland acts as a deterrent, [checking the number of incidents] not simply how many convictions there are there."