Animal charity highlights the importance of badgers in Wales ahead of the 2026 Senedd election
Amelia Jones
An animal charity has released a manifesto on why badgers matter in Wales ahead of the Senedd election.
The Badger Trust has launched a Cymru Badger Manifesto ahead of the 2026 Senedd election, calling on candidates to commit to stronger protections for badgers and science-led policies on wildlife and farming.
The group says badgers have been part of Wales’ landscape for thousands of years and are closely linked to Welsh heritage and folklore.
They said: “With the Senedd elections coming up in 2026, we want to ensure badgers are kept at the forefront of conversations; that’s why we’ve launched the Cymru Badger Manifesto.
“We need Senedd candidates to commit to keeping Wales on the right path and increasing the pace of progress.”
The charity warns that badgers still face several threats including illegal persecution, habitat loss and ongoing debates around their role in spreading bovine tuberculosis (bTB).
Although Wales successfully manages bTB without culling badgers, the Senedd elections are approaching in May 2026, and leadership or policy changes could threaten badgers, weakening their protections and increasing the threat of badger culling.
In the manifesto, they ask Senedd candidates to: celebrate Welsh heritage by protecting badgers, keep Wales free of badger culling and invest in evidence-based disease control, challenge misinformation, improve awareness, enforcement and reporting of badger persecution, and to empower local badger groups who offer a range of helpful services to local communities and organisations.
They took to social media to announce the release of the manifesto, saying: “Badgers have lived in Wales for hundreds of thousands of years.
“Woven into our fields, forests & folklore, they’re part of our natural and cultural heritage.
“Let’s protect them for future generations! Tell your MS candidate: Badgers belong here.”
You can read the full manifesto here.
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I agree that there should be “science-led policies on wildlife and farming”. This means that it would be foolhardy to exclude or include any future badger cull in Wales. If the findings from the English and Irish culls find a benefit, it should be taken into consideration. So far the science tells that in areas of high badger population with significant perturbation boundaries there is a benefit to a selective cull in the control of bTB. However, a generalised cull does not work. What we do know is that vaccination of badgers on any scale does not work. This is… Read more »