BBC Springwatch presenter Chris Packham has told Michael Gove he should order an investigation into the harm being done to Britain’s wildlife.
At a meeting with the environment secretary in Westminster on Wednesday, the campaigner also argued for tougher regulation on bird-shooting, fox-hunting and pesticides, HuffPost UK has learned.
Describing the meeting as “positive”, Packham said: “We are at a crisis point and as a consequence we need to put every penny in our pockets and spend money on the public good.
“I didn’t ask Michael to give organisations more money. I asked him to look at where money is being spent.”
The naturalist said he also repeatedly underlined the importance of tackling pesticides, amid reports species such as bees and butterflies are suffering.
Packham told Gove he should order an independent audit, similar to the Stern Review into the state of the environment commissioned by Tony Blair’s government in 2006.
The meeting follows weeks of pressure on the government from climate change protestors Extinction Rebellion.
Packham told HuffPost UK: “My problem is, and I stressed this to Michael, is that we have got to know how much of any pesticide is being used in the UK and where it is being used.
“We need to have an audit so that we can understand the problem and whether pesticides are being misused.
“But the independent audit should include everything: bird-shooting, pesticides and everything else.”
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn will this week call on Theresa May to declare a national climate emergency.
It emerged in March that the UK will miss almost all the 2020 nature targets it signed up to a decade ago. The so-called Aichi biodiversity targets were set in 2010 by the global Convention on Biological Diversity.
Packham said Gove also expressed sympathy after the presenter and his family were the subject of death threats.
The threats were sent after it emerged Packham backed a legal challenge which resulted in Natural England revoking three general licences which allowed the shooting of 16 species of bird, including crows, magpies, Canada geese and feral and wood pigeons.
“Michael was very kind to me after the week I have had,” he said. “I hope we can move away from being divisive and be more creative about what can be done to protect our environment.
“It is only through working together that we are going to make a difference.”
A spokesman for Michael Gove described the meeting as positive but added academics were carrying out monitoring and audit work which could be collated.
Meanwhile, the Commons Labour MP Anna McMorrin also called for a conservation audit and opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn said it would be an “appropriate response” to the climate crisis.