These projects hardly ever actually get the go ahead - esp wrt large predators of any kind. Although it is the governments "stated aim" to reintroduce extinct or endangered species, the level of paperwork required far, far exceeds what many organisations are capable of funding or producing.
Thus there really is virtually no chance whatsoever for successful reintroduction to take place.
E.g. the attempted Lynx reintroduction by the Lynx Trust, last year. It was completely shot down in flames by Gove and Natural England.
Natural England demanded that assessments, reports and studies be commissioned detailing exactly how the lynx would interact with all other species; exactly where they would roam; have a fully professional staff on hand to monitor them at all times; have unanimous support from locals, the Forestry Commission, veterinarians and other bodies; have multi-year funding in place ... the list goes on.
In short, reintroduction aren't going to happen. Bodies like Natural England make it virtually impossible due to the incredible (and unrealistic) amount of work and supporting evidence needed.
So ... we wiped out these species with NO paperwork; NO consideration; NO forethought.
We won't reintroduce because the paperwork, unanimous agreement, funding (etc) makes it a non-starter for 99.999999999% of all organisations to deliver.
The only way would be if someone like Musk/Bill Gates/a.n.other (etc) suddenly took an interest. That's the reality. Someone like that can make these projects happen. For anyone else the paperwork and sheer multitude of regulations will kill any proposal.
For one they need to be churning out scientific papers to journals on a regular basis before NE will endorse any proposal anyhow.
Plus Michael Gove is ultimately in charge, and he won't approve re-introduction of anything that can't be hunted on horseback.
It won't surprise anyone to learn that the EU is having multiple successful reintroduction of many species. The UK is just far to NIMBY-ish and risk averse.
Also re the NE smack down of Lynx reintroduction - they specifically mentioned the lack of "cost benefit analysis". So the government's stated aim is BS anyhow - they want to know how much money they can make from any reintroduction.
Sorry to put a dampener on this, but if Natural Resources Wales is anything like Natural England - they will bury this proposal. It makes a nice headline but ultimately will fall foul of the bureaucracy.
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