Report finds Wales is failing to cope with alarming decline in natural environment Wales

The Welsh Government has failed to halt an “alarming” decline in the natural environment, putting iconic species at risk, a report has concluded.

The cross-party Senate committee on climate change, environment and infrastructure accused Labor ministers of overseeing “delays, unfulfilled promises and missed deadlines”.

A Welsh Assembly committee has called on the government to publish firm proposals on how to save nature, saying there is a lack of “planning, action and investment”.

Conservation groups providing evidence to an inquiry launched by the committee say much-loved species such as the curlew, which plays an important role in Welsh folklore and culture, are in danger due to a lack of effective action.

In June 2021, the Welsh Government committed to setting legally binding biodiversity targets, but it admitted to the committee that they are currently unlikely to be set before 2029. England has set targets and Scotland is ahead of Wales on biodiversity, the committee said. process.

The committee found that key documents designed to guide the Welsh Government's biodiversity work, such as the Natural Resources Policy (NRP) which sets out priorities and risks, were years out of date. The NRP was released in 2018.

Committee chairman Llŷr Gruffydd said: “Wales' natural beauty is disappearing at an alarming rate. After decades of pollution, urbanization and the effects of climate change, Wales' natural environment is in trouble. One in six species in Wales faces extinction threats.

“The unfortunate reality is that the Welsh Government’s numerous plans, strategies and policies have failed to arrest this decline. It is clear that this is because there has been little investment or action to deliver on the promises made.”

Environmental regulator Natural Resources Wales is already understaffed and plans to cut a further 265 jobs due to budget cuts, the report said. “Years of underinvestment have stretched NRW's resources, clearly limiting its ability to effectively guide biodiversity recovery,” the report said.

North Rhine-Westphalia is responsible for monitoring protected sites, but the commission said some sites had not been visited in more than 10 years.

RSPB Cymru welcomed the report and in particular suggested that the forthcoming bill should include the overarching aim of reversing biodiversity loss.

An example of a species it highlights as being in serious trouble is the swift, whose numbers in Wales have fallen by 76% since 1995. The report says Wales has lost more than 90% of its curlew population in the past 40 years. The charity said more than half of the world's Manx gull population breed on the Welsh islands, meaning effective plans to protect the marine environment are vital.

Alex Philips, policy and advocacy manager at WWF Cyprus, said: “We cannot wait another four years for legally binding nature targets. The Welsh Government needs to prioritize setting targets by 2030 to halt and reverse the loss of Wales’ natural environment and bring Wales into compliance with the international biodiversity agreement it is a signatory to.

“We must speed up delivery and ensure key schemes such as the Sustainable Farming Scheme are designed in a way that enables Wales to meet its nature goals.”

A Welsh Government spokesman said: “We welcome the findings and will consider the report and recommendations, with a formal response to follow.

“We are committed to tackling the nature emergency and recognize the need to increase the scale and speed of our delivery to meet current and future biodiversity targets. As the report points out, a whole of Wales approach is needed, not just the government Solve it yourself.”