Guidance

Beavers: planning stakeholder engagement for release projects 

Published 28 February 2025

Applies to England

You must read this guidance alongside:

• the wild release criteria for beavers
• chapter 9 of the reintroductions and other conservation translocations code and guidance for England

You must engage with a variety of stakeholders if you’re planning to apply for a licence to release beavers into the wild. If your application does not include information about your stakeholder engagement, Natural England will not be able to assess it.

Stakeholders include anyone who:

• has an interest in your project
• could affect your project
• could be affected by your project (positively or negatively)

Engaging with stakeholders will help you to:

• build good relationships with the people affected by the project
• create opportunities to work together
• inform people about the effects of releasing beavers
• understand any opportunities and how to make the most of them
• understand the risks, and find ways to manage them
• meet the application requirements for releasing beavers into the wild

Your engagement with stakeholders should:

• inform your project plan – consider stakeholders’ legitimate concerns when developing your project’s mitigation strategies
• be an ongoing process – engagement should last long enough to allow stakeholders to ask questions and get responses from the project team
• be appropriate for the scale of your project – consider your project’s size, complexity, benefits and risks

Identify your stakeholders

To identify your stakeholders, you should consider:

• social and economic factors – for example, local landowners, infrastructure and businesses
• environmental factors – for example, the conservation designations of affected land
• where beavers are likely to spread to during the 10-year project period

Your stakeholders may change during your project – for example, if the beaver population increases or moves. Think about how you will extend your engagement to include new stakeholders.

You could keep a stakeholder register to help you:

• know who you have engaged with
• identify any stakeholders you have not engaged with

Direct stakeholders

Some stakeholders will have direct influence over the outcome of your project.

The direct stakeholders you engage with should include representatives from the social, economic, and environmental groups that will be affected by your project.

Direct stakeholders could include: 

• Natural England’s national beaver officer and area team liaison – email beavers@naturalengland.org.uk
• Environment Agency teams for flood risk, fisheries, biodiversity, permitting and water related catchment management - email enquiries@environment-agency.gov.uk
• other flood risk management authorities – for example, your local authority or internal drainage board
• owners and managers of riverside land and waterbodies in the project area
• Beaver Trust and other environmental non-governmental organisations
• Forestry England
• academic institutions or experts– for example, beaver experts or experts in species reintroduction
• existing catchment partnerships
• existing beaver groups or projects, including beaver enclosures
• managers of the historic environment – for example, the local council landscape and historic environment officers and local geo-conservation groups
• managers of protected landscapes – for example, managers of Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty and National Park Authorities
• fisheries and river users, such as anglers, fisheries and recreational groups
• infrastructure organisations – for example, water companies, Highways England, Network Rail
• Canal and River Trusts

Indirect stakeholders

You must also consider stakeholders that beavers will indirectly affect.

These stakeholders could include:

• local people and the community – for example, walkers and naturalists
• owners and managers of riverside land that is further away from the catchment
• organisations and interest groups, including membership organisations – for example National Farmers Union (NFU), Country Land and Business Association (CLA), Wildlife Trusts, Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT)

Owners and managers of affected land

You need to engage with the owners and managers of riverside land and waterbodies in the project area that could be affected by your plan to release beavers. You should keep a record of this engagement for your application.

You should also give landowners and managers the contact details of your project lead. This will allow them to continue to engage with you. This will help you to identify the effects of your project and, if needed, develop measures to mitigate or manage them.

When to engage with stakeholders

You may start to engage with stakeholders before you submit your expression of interest form.

If you have not engaged with stakeholders before you submit your expression of interest form, you must explain how and when you plan to engage with them.

You should also:

• raise awareness about your proposed project early on through targeted engagement
• continue to engage with stakeholders throughout the application process
• show you have considered stakeholders who could be affected by your project over the next 10 years
• show you have considered how you will adapt to meet stakeholders’ needs over time

If Natural England grants you a licence to release beavers into the wild, you must engage with affected stakeholders throughout the duration of the licence. 

How to engage with stakeholders

When planning your strategy for engaging with stakeholders, you should consider how to manage potential concerns and any issues raised.

You should also consider what type of information different stakeholders need. Stakeholders who support your project may not need the same information as those who have concerns about it.

You should:

• tailor your communication to different stakeholders in the engagement process
• share information that is factual, clear and appropriate for the specific audience

Methods for engaging with stakeholders

You can engage with stakeholders using different methods. These include:

• local community meetings
• mini conferences or awareness talks
• workshops, focus groups and surveys
• information handouts or leaflets
• letters of intent
• visits to beaver sites
• individual conversations and site visits – for example, to affected landowners

Individual conversations and site visits are the best methods for engaging people who will be most affected by the project, especially during the early years.

Methods for continued engagement

As your project progresses, you can switch to engagement methods better suited to continued engagement over longer periods of time.  These include: 

• progress reports and success stories
• key updates, including next meeting dates
• meetings
• forums
• site visits – for example, to interested groups
• having an online and media presence

Showing your engagement

As part of your application for a licence to release beavers into the wild, you must show how:

• you have engaged with stakeholders
• you will continue to engage with stakeholders
• your stakeholder engagement has informed your project plan

To prepare for your application, you could keep a record of your engagement in a stakeholder engagement plan.

Your plan could include information about:

• who you have engaged with and why
• when the engagement took place and during which stage of your project
• the type of engagement method you used, or plan to use
• how often you engaged with stakeholders
• the dates, attendees and actions of consultations, meetings or forums
• the purpose and objectives of engagement
• the main topics you discussed with stakeholders (both positive and negative)
• the outcomes of the engagement, including how you addressed important points
• the risks and remaining issues to consider, including unresolved concerns
• your plans for ongoing engagement with local stakeholders and community groups