Wales failing to tackle alarming decline in nature, report finds | Wales

The Welsh government is failing to halt the “alarming” decline in nature, putting iconic species at risk, a report has concluded.

Labour ministers were accused of overseeing “delays, undelivered commitments and missed deadlines” by the Senedd’s cross-party climate change, environment and infrastructure committee.

The Welsh parliament committee called on the government to publish firm proposals for how it intended to save nature, saying it currently lacked “a plan, action and investment”.

Conservation organisations who gave evidence to an inquiry set up by the committee said beloved species such as the curlew, which holds a cherished place in Welsh folklore and culture, were in danger because of a lack of effective action.

In June 2021, the Welsh government promised to set legally binding biodiversity targets, but it admitted to the committee that these targets were now unlikely to be set until 2029. The committee said England had already set its targets and Scotland was ahead of Wales in the process.

The committee found that important documents meant 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biodiversity work, such as the natural resources policy (NRP), which sets out priorities and risks, were years out of date.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 published in 2018.

Llŷr Gruffydd, the committee chair, said: “Wales’s nature is disappearing at an alarming rate. After decades of pollution, urbanisation and the impact of climate change, Wales’s nature is in trouble. One in six Welsh species are threatened with extinction.

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

The report said the environmental regulator, Natural Resources Wales, was already understaffed – and was planning to shed another 265 jobs because of budget cuts. It said: “Years of under-investment have stretched NRW too thin, and this has clearly limited its ability to lead biodiversity recovery effectively.”

NRW is responsible for monitoring protected sites but the committee said some had not been visited for more than 10 years.

RSPB Cymru welcomed the report, particularly a recommendation that a forthcoming bill should include a headline target to reverse biodiversity loss.

Examples of species it highlighted as being in deep trouble were the swift, whose numbers in Wales were down 76% since 1995. It said Wales had lost more than 90% of its curlews in the last 40 years. The charity said more than half the world’s manx shearwaters breed on Welsh islands, meaning effective plans to protect marine environments were vital.

Alex Philips, the policy and advocacy manager at WWF Cymru, said: “We cannot wait another four years for legally binding nature targets to be set. The Welsh government needs to be prioritising setting targets to halt and reverse the loss of nature in Wales by 2030 to bring Wales in line with international biodiversity agreements it has already signed up to.

“We must speed up delivery and ensure that key schemes such as the sustainable farming scheme are designed in a way that enable Wales to meet nature targets.”

A Welsh government spokesperson said: “We welcome the findings of the inquiry and will consider the report and recommendations, with a formal response to follow.

“We are committed to tackling the nature emergency, and recognise the need to increase the scale and pace of our delivery to meet both current and future biodiversity targets. As the report notes, a whole-Wales approach is needed, it is not just for government to tackle on its own.”