4. Statement by the Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs: Restoring nature in Wales

– in the Senedd at 3:29 pm on 21 January 2025.

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Photo of David Rees David Rees Labour 3:29, 21 January 2025

(Translated)

Item 4 today is a statement by the Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs on restoring nature in Wales. I call on the Cabinet Secretary, Huw Irranca-Davies.

Photo of Huw Irranca-Davies Huw Irranca-Davies Labour

Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. Almost 75 years ago to the day, a Labour Government revolutionised people's access to nature by establishing the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949. For the first time, this gave people public rights of way, national trails and areas of outstanding natural beauty. The Act flipped centuries-old rules about land access on their head and gave everyone—everyone—a right to enjoy nature, no matter how much money they had in their pockets.

It is no coincidence, of course, that this was the same transformative Labour Government that created the NHS. It's the same socialist principles at work. It’s about fairness and about people having the freedom to access the essentials we all need to live a healthy and a happy life. And those same principles are what underpins the proud environmental record of successive Welsh Labour Governments here in the Senedd over the last 25 years, from creating the Wales coast path, to establishing the national forest for Wales. And those same principles still drive us today. And with one in six species now at risk of extinction in Wales, it’s never been more important to restore and to strengthen people’s connection to nature. Restoring nature means restoring the places we live in and enjoy. It provides green jobs. It supports local and rural economies, and it underpins the economy in a whole range of sectors, including, of course, food production and tourism.

Photo of Huw Irranca-Davies Huw Irranca-Davies Labour 3:30, 21 January 2025

Deputy Presiding Officer, the people of Wales spoke very clearly during the First Minister's listening exercise, and today I'm here to show how we're turning their words into action. In this Senedd term alone, we have invested over £150 million to restore nature and to improve access to nature on people’s doorsteps. We’ve delivered more than 4,000 green spaces, 790 community food growing sites, 670 community orchards and 80 therapeutic sensory gardens through our Local Places for Nature. And this includes, by the way, delivering more green spaces in less well-off communities in our towns and cities across Wales, where access to green spaces can sometimes be harder to come by. And we’ve transformed our municipal grasslands into homes for pollinators and wildlife, working with the local nature partnerships. By changing the way we mow in places like Singleton Park in Swansea, and the roadside verges of Denbighshire, we have helped make them more friendly for pollinators.

We’ve invested £54 million in our Nature Networks programme to improve our protected sites and connect people with nature. And, in practice, this means funding places like the bug farm in St Davids that I visited recently. It was brilliant to hear first-hand about the work they’re doing to connect 200 hectares of wildlife habitat and to open their nature recovery centre, providing a wonderful resource for local children, and for tourists as well, to enjoy. And many Members here will have had the pleasure of meeting Jinx, the biosecurity dog, who has helped protect Wales’s globally important but endangered seabird population on islands such as Ramsey in Pembrokeshire. And I’ve already mentioned the national forest, which now has over 100 sites, creating a network of well-managed woodlands the length and breadth of Wales. These sites provide spaces for nature to thrive, and for communities to enjoy.

Our woodland investment grant and the Coetiroedd Bach schemes have created and improved woodlands across Wales, with over £8 million awarded to 56 projects. So, for example, in Dee Park in Flintshire, our support helped to employ two part-time rangers to manage the site and to lead community classes and events. Funding for Llandegfedd in south Wales has supported significant path improvements to create a more accessible green space for the public to enjoy.

And, of course, I recognise how strongly people feel about the importance of improving water quality and restoring our rivers, and rightly so. And that’s why we’ve provided Natural Resources Wales with an extra £40 million of funding to do just that. I recently visited a remarkable project on the Nant Dowlais, where a stretch of the river has been rewiggled. Over time, we hope that new stream will form pools and create natural habitat. It’s a really great example of how we can take action to bring a whole range of different benefits to both water quality and biodiversity. 

And because of our efforts, an area equivalent to hundreds of thousands of rugby pitches of habitat are now under restoration that weren’t previously. The Habitat Wales scheme supports farmers to maintain and enhance the habitat on their land. In 2024 alone, £16 million has been allocated, with 341,794 hectares under agreement. And we’ve also offered farmers contracts to support the creation and restoration of over 300 km of hedgerows.

The national peatland action programme has restored over 3,000 rugby pitches of peat restored, reaching our target a year ahead of time—1.6 million tonnes of carbon has been safeguarded through this; carbon emissions reduced by 8,000 tonnes per year. It’s the equivalent of 5,700 car emissions. And peatland restoration also supports natural flood management, as well as improving water quality.

But we're not only taking action on land. Through supporting the development of the national seagrass action plan, we will enable the recovery of 266 hectares of seagrass by 2030, from Pembrokeshire to Traeth Penial in Holyhead. And Wales is leading the way on the end-of-life fishing gear scheme, which has collected 12 tonnes of gear, reducing plastic pollution in our seas and preventing wildlife from becoming trapped and entangled.

We have achieved all of this, Dirprwy Lywydd, through working with partners and volunteers right across Wales. And we've achieved all of this in the face of years and years and years of squeezed budgets due to Tory economic chaos in Westminster. We've achieved all of this, and we'll continue to achieve more, because protecting and restoring nature, and helping more people to enjoy it, goes to the very heart of this Welsh Labour Government.

Now, of course, there is more we need to do. We are facing a climate and nature emergency that we all need to tackle head-on. That’s why I'm delighted to announce today that an additional 11 projects will be awarded nearly £2.7 million of Nature Networks funding, with further announcements due in March. I also intend to run a further round of the fund in 2025-26. And that’s not all. Our sustainable investment work will enable us to increase the scale and the pace of nature restoration across Wales, to help us meet our high ambitions. I will introduce landmark legislation for nature restoration targets and an environmental governance body. And the sustainable farming scheme will require and support farmers to manage at least 10 per cent of their farm as habitat, and support a whole range of other actions for nature.

Our investment, Dirprwy Lywydd, in nature restoration is delivering improvements that people across Wales want to see now: protecting iconic species, improving access for all communities, boosting water quality, supporting local economies, green jobs, sustainable growth. Restoring and connecting people with nature will also deliver future benefits, improving our resilience to climate change and strengthening our ability to manage the sea and land sustainably. The very best legacy we can leave for future generations is a recovering natural environment that can support them as it has supported us. I look forward to hearing Members' contributions, Dirprwy Lywydd.

Photo of Peter Fox Peter Fox Conservative 3:37, 21 January 2025

Can I thank you, Cabinet Secretary, for your statement, and thank you for sharing your enthusiasm? I welcome some of the announcements, clearly, in your statement, including those 11 new projects. Indeed, listening to the statement, we would feel that everything is well. But we are not in a good place, are we? One in six species at risk of extinction, and wildlife in Wales has declined by 20 per cent since 1994. Welsh Government are failing to take this matter seriously enough. Now, can I commend the Climate Change, Environment and Infrastructure Committee for their work on their report, which was published yesterday, that shines a light on the worrying trend of decline in our country's wildlife? In 2021, the Welsh Government declared a nature emergency, being one of the first Parliaments in the world to declare such an emergency. However, it's clear from the evidence we have that this has not led to any sustainable action to improve our situation from Welsh Government.

Prioritising the environment means far more than statements and plans. It requires action, and it requires appropriate resources and total commitment, and it would seem we haven't seen perhaps quite enough of that to date. There has to be meaningful engagement with stakeholders to understand the problems and the preventions, and then objectives with deliverable and measurable targets have to be put in place. It's only then can we hope to deal with the scale of the crisis that we are now facing. The few targets that the Welsh Government had set out, we read, have been moved from 2025 to 2029. I think we need to know why this is the case, Cabinet Secretary. This reflects a lack of urgency, or it would seem to reflect a lack of urgency. It would seem little has been achieved from the targets worked on since 2022, and we shouldn't be in a position of lagging behind England and Scotland once again. It's a sad state of affairs that we hear too often. The committee’s report exposes the scale of the failure of successive Welsh Governments. Failures at a legislative and strategic level have left us with outdated law and policy, leading to very little impact. Now, NRW, the body that is meant to be looking out for the environment, continues to be under-resourced, and I heard what was said in the statement about the additional money, yet we keep asking it to do more and more. I personally think there needs to be a fundamental rethink of what NRW should be responsible for. It then needs resourcing properly to do its work if we’re really serious about making progress on our rivers. I’m not sure if the £40 million extra will actually achieve that.

At the end of the day, Dirprwy Lywydd, the Government can’t keep asking more of people like farmers and rural communities to contribute more and more to tackle environmental issues when the Government itself is not pulling its own weight. Cabinet Secretary, we have a chance to reverse this disastrous trend and make meaningful reforms, delivering on targets and driving forward with a strategy that will actually make a difference. Cabinet Secretary, when will we see a measurable strategy that will be resourced appropriately? It’s not too late, but if we do not act soon it certainly will be.

Photo of Huw Irranca-Davies Huw Irranca-Davies Labour 3:41, 21 January 2025

Peter, look, first of all, thank you very much, because I think, broadly speaking, you’ve supported the additional announcement that we have today for the Nature Networks funding of an additional £2.7 million for 11 projects. I think you’ve supported as well the extra £40 million that we’ve put into NRW to tackle water quality. Then you challenge us to do more. I would simply say, reflecting on the points I made in my opening contribution, all the stuff that we’ve done over the last decade and more has been done in the face of austerity, in the face of cuts not only to NRW but to the Environment Agency in England as well. Across the piste, every Government within the UK has faced stretch. Now, we’re in a position where we have the opportunity to lever in additional funding into Wales to the tune of an additional £1.5 billion. Out of that we can make investment within nature and within NRW and within others, and we can go further, and I welcome the support for that.

But can I also ask that Members, when they speak for nature, also stand with us when we bring forward the policies that deliver for nature—those policies, including on water quality, those policies, including on soil quality, those policies right across the piste? We cannot say one thing here and then vote against it because we’re under pressure outside from stakeholders. We have to be consistent. That does mean, actually, working with developers, with farmers, with industrialists, with everybody, but it means us being consistent.

We are putting our money where our mouth is on this. The seagrass funding of £100,000 is really a very good example of where a contribution of our money enables then the levering in of additional volunteers and funding to take that even further, because we know—. The peat restoration piece, where, again, we’re actually working with partners to go further.

So, it shouldn’t all fall on the taxpayers of Wales, Dirprwy Lywydd. We’ve got a part to play, and Welsh Government does, so do public sector, so do private partners and many others, but so, I would say, Peter—and genuinely, Peter, I’m really looking forward to working with you in your new role as well there—we have to stick steadfastly by the policies that will also deliver this, even when sometimes we get pushback that says, ‘Oh, that’s a bit too tricky for this group of stakeholders, or that one.’ We’re all in this together. We restore nature by all being willing to lift the boat together.

Photo of Delyth Jewell Delyth Jewell Plaid Cymru 3:44, 21 January 2025

(Translated)

I welcome this opportunity. I thank the Deputy First Minister for the statement. There are lots of good things that are in the offing, certainly. I do welcome many of the things that the Deputy First Minister mentioned in the statement. Of course, we must consider the context in terms of the very critical report that was published yesterday by the climate change committee. That's going to crystallise how we see many of these things. These points are raised so that we can ensure that the really good, important work that is in the offing is built upon. There are so many people who want to see more happening. The report warns about a massive decline in wildlife in Wales. You've mentioned that one in six species is currently endangered. Wildlife populations have reduced by 20 per cent over the last 30 years. And when we talk about biodiversity, of course, that is the foundation of our lives, and that's why it's so important. 

The report does draw attention to the fact that we are years behind when it comes to the key policy documents of the Welsh Government on restoring nature. The nature recovery plan, as we have heard, has not been reviewed, for example. So, how will the Welsh Government be able to look at this? And what will be the justification that you will give to the sector and to people who are concerned about this on updating basic plans? Are you concerned that this might undermine the credibility of the Government on the international stage, because we’ve made commitments to reverse nature loss, which is so important? Is this perhaps undermining that?

We’ve heard already about the lack of resources and staff dedicated to Natural Resources Wales. I welcome what you’ve said about funding for Natural Resources Wales. What will you be doing to improve communication of the work that Natural Resources Wales is doing to the public, and to ensure that people are more aware of where to go and what things they will be able to prioritise? Because I’m concerned that people are very critical of the work that they are doing. Perhaps that’s added to a feeling of people being dispirited among that workforce. They do such important work. What can be done to communicate the challenges, but also to ensure that that communication from them does improve, please?

There are a number of other partners, beyond what the Government can do, who are doing very important work on restoring nature. What work do you foresee, please, or what’s already being done to attract funding from beyond what the Government is doing and to co-ordinate that very important work that a number of those partners—? You’ve talked about the private sector in this context. How can we co-ordinate that, because, again, there are a number of very exciting projects in the offing with that?

Now, we turn to the forthcoming nature Bill. Again, this has been raised already, and that the climate change committee has talked about the fact that the biodiversity targets are not likely to be in place until 2029. Will you commit to doing everything that you can to accelerate the work on developing those targets, so that they align with the international agreement timetable? There is great concern that if the necessary frameworks are not in place until a year before 2030, that could lead to a great deterioration. And, of course, let’s not forget that the Welsh Government voted in favour of a Plaid Cymru motion in the Senedd and committed to reversing biodiversity loss by 2030, and declared a nature emergency. We’re all agreed on that, but the action has to ensure that we to deliver on that. So, how much progress do you—? What do you think is the greatest challenge in terms of delivering that? And what needs to happen for us to ensure, in terms of those targets, that we don’t have to wait so long? Because we have to ask ourselves what kind of Wales we will leave to the future generations and to our children—we want to leave them a land full of biodiversity, where children can hear nature and admire the wonders of lively ecosystems. That’s still something that can happen, but it will only happen if we make difficult decisions but necessary decisions.

So, to close, because I see that I'm out of time, to ensure those targets more quickly, to ensure that Natural Resources Wales’s work is communicated better and to support them, and to guarantee that those commitments that have been made in COP15 and in this Senedd are delivered. And I am sorry that I’ve run 20 seconds over time.

Photo of Huw Irranca-Davies Huw Irranca-Davies Labour 3:49, 21 January 2025

(Translated)

Thank you, Delyth. There were many important points there. 

Photo of Huw Irranca-Davies Huw Irranca-Davies Labour

Just on the report, we will obviously respond in full and in due course to the report, but we really welcome the report and the challenge that's in it, because we agree with the challenge. I would simply say, looking to your left, as you're sitting there, to the Chair, on whose committee I used to serve as a member, the challenge is right, but I think the challenge is for all of us, not in Welsh Government, but you rightly touch on how we actually lever in additional funding. Well, that is a challenge for all of those big potential investor communities who want to invest in high-integrity, really strong ethically principled investment into nature restoration and recovery, but to do it on our terms, so that it meets what we want to do in Wales, in our local communities, and so that it fits within our objectives within the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015, the sustainable land management principles and all of that.

I think that we can devise schemes that can do that. There are some good innovations out there already that are doing that, including the work that we touched on with the peat restoration project, where Dŵr Cymru money was levered in there. Some of the work that we're doing in the Teifi project already does that, and that's an interesting piece of work in nature restoration as well as river quality, doing the whole piece, working on a catchment basis. But I do think that there is more that we can do, and I'm interested in this aspect of blended finance, how it works with us here in Wales. I think that this is not a discussion that we were having so easily, perhaps, five or 10 years ago because of having fingers burned with some of the lessons learned with carbon offsetting and so on. But I think that if we can frame it in our terms and then lever in money, then we could really add to the quantum of investment. And investment is important. It's not the only thing; we need the policy structure right as well.

Thank you, by the way, for bigging up the good work of NRW in this space. They do sometimes come in for a drubbing. They become the Aunt Sally for a lot of people, but actually the expertise that resides within NRW and the work on the ground that they're doing—that rewiggling project I talked about with the river is absolutely fascinating. We've gone through a century or more of straightening and canalising rivers and basically letting the river run straight through, flooding somebody else further downstream, ripping out the biodiversity from that. Now, we've learned to go back, with a modern engineering way, into the old ways of making that river work naturally and there are multiple benefits. But that's NRW, working with, by the way—talking about green jobs—highly paid engineers in local companies going in there to actually do the re-wiggling, but with NRW involved. And they do so much more in species and habitats across Wales and in water quality. We are pleased that we're putting more money into water quality, but we're also putting more money into the enforcement end as well, because we know that the public are very interested in that.

Just finally, on the aspect—and my apologies, Peter, because you raised this as well and I didn't mean to skip over it. When I appeared in front of the committee, I could see the faces of the committee members when I said about the timetable for bringing forward the targets. I'm very alive to that. We're working, both my officials, but also with key stakeholders, to see how we can pragmatically expedite that, bring it forward, but whilst also getting the targets right. And there is a critical issue here, because if the Bill comes forward and we progress it through this place, then taking forward those detailed targets that will flow from the Bill, if that's the point that we get to, does require a fair degree of working out. It really does. And I think, as we go through committee, if there's anything that I can do in terms of technical briefings and so on, to explain the challenges of doing that and explain why it cannot be done overnight, then we'll do it.

But the other thing I'd say is, yes, look, we hold fast to the commitments that we have on biodiversity—halting loss, but also restoring—but it is challenging. We've been talking about this for a couple of decades. If we get this right and then we can really ramp it up and go for it, then that'll be the biggest service that we can do to future generations. Let's give them the framework with this new Bill, let's get the targets in place as soon as we possibly can and then drive ahead.

And that was the other aspect you mentioned, about the plan as well, the nature restoration plan. Look, we know that that's an obligation. For us, at the moment, it's very important to get on with the actions that have flowed from the plan in its previous iterations and more, but we will actually have to bring that forward. But the absence of a plan doesn't mean an absence of action. We're getting on. I described in my opening statement many of the things that we are doing. 

Photo of Carolyn Thomas Carolyn Thomas Labour 3:54, 21 January 2025

Could I just declare that I've been working on a project with Welsh Government called 'It's for Them', regarding managing verges and amenity grass for nature, because we've lost 97 per cent of our wildflower meadows over the last 50 years?

I'd just like to start by saying that connecting people to nature not only helps physical and mental health and well-being, it also helps people to understand about the importance of nature and biodiversity as well, connecting them, then, and hopefully leading them into jobs as well. I know that with the Local Places for Nature funding, we've developed, is it, 4,000 sites, amazingly, with orchards, pollinator sites, allotments, therapeutic gardens, and with 20,000 volunteers, which is amazing, connecting to nature and learning about nature. The Local Places for Nature funding has also helped to sustain biodiversity officers in local authorities, which otherwise would have been cut, and they've helped with these volunteers. So, I'd like to ask you, Cabinet Secretary: many sectors of the economy, including green jobs, are needed, so what assessment do you have of the potential for green jobs, not only in supporting nature, but for growing the economy as well through nature?

Photo of Huw Irranca-Davies Huw Irranca-Davies Labour 3:55, 21 January 2025

I think the potential is huge and it is growing, not only in those aspects such as Local Places for Nature, the local nature networks fund and all of the work that flows from that, because all of that—as well as the incredible contribution by volunteers—is driven by a small army of people on the ground who've got real knowledge, either on ecology or on volunteer management, project management and so on—they're incredible people. But also, as we bring forward the sustainable farming scheme, as we bring forward the timber strategy and as we drive forward the national forest, all of that creates opportunities for many young people coming out of our further education colleges and higher education colleges, but also for on-the-job continual learning and improvement as well. So, the potential here is huge. 

We often get very, very excited, understandably, and I know that the Dirprwy Lywydd will, about the potential with, for example, the Celtic seas and those jobs in those new technologies of floating wind, for example, that you can create in the harbours in servicing those rigs and so on. They are really exciting, but equally exciting is the potential within that green space of nature restoration. Who are going to be the ones who advise on the hedgerow creation? Who are going to be the ones who advise on the ponds and scrapes? Who are going to be the ones to talk about the way you manage ditches, not only for flow of water, but to restore nature within them and so on? All of these are very exciting, and we know that many—. Not all of our pupils are going to go on to be politicians, thank goodness, because it's competitive enough already, or, necessarily, to be nurses or cardiac surgeons, or this, that or the other. Some of them will, but some of them will want to work in the outdoors in the environmental sphere, and we need to bring forward those skills and training opportunities for them as well, alongside, as you say, the thousands upon thousands of volunteers that drive this for us as well.

Photo of Janet Finch-Saunders Janet Finch-Saunders Conservative 3:57, 21 January 2025

Despite various policies, soundbites and statements from here, it's fair to say that the strategies and legislation delays have caused insufficient actions, and these are now hindering Wales's biodiversity restoration commitments. The Environment (Wales) Act 2016, once hailed as groundbreaking, has failed to drive meaningful change. Weak drafting and really poor implementation have left the sustainable management of natural resources objective misaligned with biodiversity goals. Similarly, the outdated natural resources policy has seen non-reviews and non-collection of important data, and this just renders it all ineffective.

One in six species is now threatened. Professor Steve Ormerod of Cardiff University highlighted in our Climate Change, Environment and Infrastructure Committee that the current legislation we have has failed to make a difference in stemming biodiversity loss. Colleagues, we do have a nature crisis, and despite a call by this Government—

Photo of David Rees David Rees Labour 3:59, 21 January 2025

You need to ask a question now, please, Janet.

Photo of Janet Finch-Saunders Janet Finch-Saunders Conservative

—to declare a nature emergency, we continue to see our species in decline. What steps are you really taking, Cabinet Secretary, to ensure—[Interruption.]—in terms of statistics and in terms of numbers, that real action is taken to stop the decline of our species and the reduction of them? It's not good enough, and we need change.

Photo of Huw Irranca-Davies Huw Irranca-Davies Labour

Thank you, Janet, and I'm assuming you were here for my opening statement, when I actually listed the funding, the projects, the volunteers, the expertise, the additional investment, or you may have missed that, in which case I will send you a copy of the speech again. But I would say to you, Janet: join with us on this mission and stand by us when we bring forward the policies that are needed to make this happen. Don't turn your back when it's difficult. Stand by us. Stand by us on the investment, after 14 years of squeezed austerity, which hit the environmental sector more than anybody else. We saw it in the Environment Agency in England, and across the piece, thanks to that former Conservative Government. At least now we have the opportunity to bring forward an additional £1.5 billion into the Welsh budget. I really hope you'll support it, because a lot of the additional funding that I've announced recently is predicated upon what we've just said. So, I really hope you don't vote against nature. Vote for it in funding, and vote for the policies as well.

There's a tendency here from the Conservative benches, Dirprwy Lywydd, to say that we've done nothing. Well, on the downs down by Ogmore Vale, where I was walking last weekend with a group of volunteers, and the First Minister joined us as well, in the mist, freezing cold, there was a 20, 30-year long project to save the high brown fritillary butterfly. It's one of only three sites in the United Kingdom. It's the only one where that high brown fritillary is now in recovery, and it's there because of the work of the volunteers, committed over decades, and it's because of sustained investment as well, and expertise from NRW, and all those people who want to see a species saved, and, by doing it, that special downland habitat also protected as well. We can do this. We absolutely can do this. And I will not be a Jeremiah. I will not be somebody who says, 'It is all gloom, and it is all despair', because in that way, the young people of this country also turn off and say, 'Well, we can't do anything anyway.' If you listen to the Conservative benches, we're absolutely doomed.

That one in six species is not simply a threat and a challenge to Wales alone. It is the same across the whole of these islands; it is the same globally as well. We all need to up our game, and rather than point the finger of blame, say, 'What's the role of Government? What's the role of others within this space? What's the role of us as elected representatives, to stand by our principles, and not only will the funding, but will the policies to make this happen.' This will happen, and it'll provide challenges, Janet, in terms of development, agriculture, land use, community planning, what we do in urban spaces as well. When these happen, based on what you've just said, I want you to stand by us and stick with your principles that you've just espoused, and don't vote down nature.

Photo of David Rees David Rees Labour 4:02, 21 January 2025

I ask Members to be succinct and to keep to their time limits. Can I also ask Cabinet Secretaries to be succinct in their responses?

Photo of Mike Hedges Mike Hedges Labour 4:03, 21 January 2025

I welcome the Government's statement. We are affected by two external factors. Climate change, warmer temperatures and changing weather patterns are disrupting the usual balance of nature, posing risks to all forms of life. It makes some areas unsuitable for native species by being either too wet or too warm. We've got pollution and eutrophication, where high concentrates of nutrients, such as nitrogen, stimulate blooms of algae in rivers, such as the Wye, which, in turn, can cause fish kills and loss of plants and animals. It is well known that toxic pollutants in the air, or deposits on soil or surface water, can impact wildlife in a number of ways. Animals experience health problems if they are exposed to sufficient concentrations of air toxics over time. Studies show that air toxics are contributing to defects, reproductive failure and disease in many animals. To restore nature, we have to deal with climate change and pollution. What is the Welsh Government doing to reduce pollution, including river pollution? We also need top-end predators, or animals such as rats will continue to increase their numbers. What proposals have the Welsh Government got to increase the number of high-end predators, such as owls?

Photo of Huw Irranca-Davies Huw Irranca-Davies Labour 4:04, 21 January 2025

Thank you very much, Mike. On pollution—to keep it very short—there's a range of things we can do on this. It's the pesticides we use, and the work that we're doing to reduce the pesticides, not only in terms of agriculture, but also in terms of the way we use them with our municipal authorities as well. There's some good work going on in that. We need to make the good practice common practice and standard. It's what we do in water quality—and I mentioned in my statement the additional £40 million we're putting into NRW—but it's also the work that we do with people like Afonydd Cymru and others, working with partners, with the Tywi river trust and others, to clean up our rivers, remove barriers, make them more friendly for different species returning to those areas.

And just very briefly, you mentioned predators as well; we do recognise the importance of top-end predators and their role within biodiversity and ecosystem functions, so we welcome the work and the research being done across Wales on things like species reintroductions in a managed way, recognising the importance of following the best international guidelines, and also of course engagement with stakeholders, engagement locally, and undertaking local evidence gathering as well. There's a role for these reintroductions in a managed way, in an evidence-led way, but also based on good engagement with the communities affected as well.

Photo of Jenny Rathbone Jenny Rathbone Labour 4:05, 21 January 2025

Thank you for all the wonderful work you described, going across the whole of Wales. I particularly want to thank you for sticking to your guns on ensuring that anybody entering the sustainable farming scheme will have to have 10 per cent of their farm for habitat restoration. That's incredibly important. I look forward to the legislation, which will enable us to have robust and stretching targets, because this is one that we absolutely have to take forward collectively, otherwise future generations simply won't have any nature.

Last week I visited the Howardian nature reserve, which is sandwiched between a housing estate, a much-loved allotment site and a major four-lane highway. It was previously a rubbish dump, and it's now home to over 500 species of flora and fauna, which just shows what can be done with any space. Given the extent of the nature crisis caused by the war on weeds and insects over 60 years, how can we use every pocket handkerchief of land for nurturing nature, galvanising people to use their own garden or public spaces to grow food and other plants that are going to nurture nature?

Photo of Huw Irranca-Davies Huw Irranca-Davies Labour 4:07, 21 January 2025

Thank you so much for that question. And by the way, agreeing on the 10 per cent habitat as part of the SFS was not a difficult ask. The farmers really wanted to come with us on this, and this is great, so I’m really excited by that and the collaborative approach that says we all need to do this and contribute to it.

The Local Places for Nature funding that goes into things such as the Howardian nature reserve and others—I know you champion this and you visit a lot of these sites—really has those multiple benefits, because it is restoring green spaces in those pockets of urban environments that previously you'd have ignored or left as it was, in some sort of state of dereliction, now enriching them for biodiversity, but also those wider community benefits, including, in the midst of cost-of-living issues and so on, enabling people to feed themselves as well, either through planting of orchards or through growing food and produce or foraging products as well. It's really brilliant.

We will continue working with communities by putting the funding in place so that they can access those to do that detailed stuff in little bits of their own local community where they can see improvements can be made. You'd think, ‘Well, why on earth would these people step up to do it? Who would go accessing this in order to do it?’ But actually, I think every Member of the Senedd here now is seeing not just one or two of these, but scores of these within their own constituencies. People want to make these improvements. They viscerally get it, why this is important. So yes, Jenny, we will keep on providing support for these initiatives and encouraging communities to be part of this great mission that we're on. Once again, we're all in this together.

Photo of Julie Morgan Julie Morgan Labour 4:09, 21 January 2025

Thank you very much, Cabinet Secretary, for your statement, for the announcements that you've made today, and for your enthusiasm for this vital area of work. I'm particularly supportive of the Welsh Government's commitment to planting trees and the creation of a national forest. In Cardiff, the Coed Caerdydd project intends to create an urban forest. Just yesterday, volunteers started to plant the 50 rare species of Gabalfa apple tree in Gabalfa park and Maitland park in my constituency. It's 100 years since this species of apple tree was seen in Cardiff, so it's absolutely fantastic that it's being reintroduced. I'd also like to emphasise the importance of getting people out and about into nature, especially in urban built-up areas like Jenny has referred to. Global Gardens is a community growing project, again in the Gabalfa area, a built-up area of Cardiff, and I've been so impressed with the work that they're doing with an organic kitchen garden, celebrating crops from around the world, they run a forest school, sensory therapeutic sessions, community-based learning and specialist sessions—

Photo of David Rees David Rees Labour 4:10, 21 January 2025

You need to ask your question now. 

Photo of Julie Morgan Julie Morgan Labour

—with asylum seekers and refugees. Would the Cabinet Secretary agree that it's these types of initiatives that are absolutely crucial? We should be celebrating them here in the Senedd today and seeking for them to be replicated all over Wales. 

Photo of Huw Irranca-Davies Huw Irranca-Davies Labour

Absolutely, Julie, and thanks for championing this in your own area in these many initiatives we're now seeing. This is the exciting part of this, because it is not somebody coming in from outside to say, 'This is what you do'. It's the community themselves grabbing this and saying, 'We can see an opportunity here'. I'm so looking forward to literally tasting the fruits of the Gabalfa apple tree, because this, again, going into these heritage lines that we'd otherwise lose, is absolutely phenomenal.

The community gardens approach, as part of the Global Gardens project, is quite incredible, because we're looking at tackling overgrown fly-tipped areas that were previously somewhat derelict, new hedgerow creations, new meadows, protection of species—bladder campion, sorrel, bird's-foot trefoil, which I've got in my garden as well, by the way, just out of interest—new apple trees, large beds of native pollinator plants being planted, and all of this with community right at the heart of it, people and nature together. 

But on top of this, Dirprwy Lywydd, we've got things like Coetiroedd Bach. I visited recently a project in Monmouthshire on this, and saw young children doing a deeply biodiverse planting scheme, way beyond what you'd see occur naturally, in a small area of land where a landowner had given them the access to it and had created the paths with our funding as well. And it was just such a great experiment in biodiversity. So, in all of these things, our funding can go a long way. What it releases is the potential of people then to get really involved and bring much more to it. 

Photo of John Griffiths John Griffiths Labour 4:12, 21 January 2025

Cabinet Secretary, it was good to accompany you on your recent visit to the Gwent levels, which I'm sure you will agree is a very good example of how land has been developed for nature and people. We have the shrill carder bee, the water vole, hopefully the curlew—a whole host of biodiversity coming back to that area of land. We have the Living Levels partnership driving community involvement, and the decision not to proceed with the M4 relief road providing the potential of land set aside for that project now being used for nature and access for communities. And, of course, there's the RSPB wetlands reserve. It's just a unique and fantastic area and community support and buy-in has developed so markedly over recent years. I'm sure you would agree with me, Cabinet Secretary, that this is a very important example of how we can take forward policy for nature and people here in Wales.

Photo of Huw Irranca-Davies Huw Irranca-Davies Labour 4:13, 21 January 2025

John, I entirely agree with you. It was a delightful visit, and I can honestly say it is the first time—. Is it today or is it tomorrow? Is it the twenty-second today? It's tomorrow. I'm 62 tomorrow, and that was the first time I had ever seen a starling murmuration happening. I've seen it on television; I'd never been standing in a field along the levels there seeing that happening, and it was quite magical. But in addition to that, just meeting there with some of the experts on the ground, but also seeing the number of local people who were coming there that evening as well, who were doing a session there to learn about it and then coming out to see, and then would be the volunteers that would do work around there as well. 

This is the note of hope and optimism that we can give. It is absolutely right that we need to do more, far more, together, and we've got a role to play in it, but what we can actually say is that, with the work that's been done there, the work that's been done on the Ogmore downs with the high brown fritillary and others, we can save species. We can turn this round and we can save habitats as well. They go together as one piece and that's exactly what's going on in the Gwent levels.  So, thank you and everybody who came out with me on that day. It was genuinely inspiring and quite a moment after 62 years to see that murmuration going on as well, because of the habitat that is being preserved. 

Photo of David Rees David Rees Labour 4:14, 21 January 2025

(Translated)

Finally, Joyce Watson. 

Photo of Joyce Watson Joyce Watson Labour 4:15, 21 January 2025

Diolch. There are some wonderful things happening, not least in some of the schools that are also funded, and if we're going to do anything positive going forward, we'll be relying on the next generation. So, Ysgol y Bedol, which is in my area in Carmarthenshire, was the very first community school in Wales. They have a wonderful programme of growing, tending to and cooking the produce. The children are so engaged, so enthusiastic. They have a bug farm there and they have a bee hive that's coming along. So, that is a real example of investment and enthusiasm by all the staff within that school, and the gardener who is teaching them, really engaging the next generation to preserve nature, going forward.

Photo of Huw Irranca-Davies Huw Irranca-Davies Labour 4:16, 21 January 2025

Joyce, thank you so much, and my congratulations to those at Ysgol y Bedol. And I have to say, to all those schools now right across Wales, the massive impact that Eco-Schools—it's Wales leading again—has made in this area. Children are coming out of schools now, Joyce—all Members will know—they write letters to all of us, to say, 'What more are you going to do? We're doing this, we're doing our small part; what now are you going to do?' And that is great, that is the push that we need. But, yes, bugs, bees, a bit of dirt on the hand, dirt under the fingernails—this is what touching and feeling nature is inspiring our young people to do, and then what we want, then, is to take that through into their older years, as older teenagers, into secondary school, and as adults, and never give up on actually challenging us to do more. But that's the note of optimism as well: it's our young people.

Photo of David Rees David Rees Labour 4:17, 21 January 2025

(Translated)

Thank you, Cabinet Secretary. And happy birthday for tomorrow.