Welsh Government failings on biodiversity targets unacceptable – says committee report
31 January 2011
A new report claims the Welsh Government needs to do more to take responsibility for achieving biodiversity targets.
The Sustainability Committee of the National Assembly for Wales found that both international and Welsh targets on halting biodiversity loss were not followed up with a strong political will.
Evidence heard by the cross-party group suggested that while the Welsh Government had produced strategies setting out lofty ambitions, these had not been achieved due to a failure to adopt a mainstreaming approach involving all government departments and agencies, and the lack of a properly funded plan of action.
The Committee calls on the Welsh Government to adopt a more holistic approach to attaining the targets and sets out a number of ways to protect Wales’s fragile ecosystems.
Chair of the Committee, Kirsty Williams AM, said: “We found numerous reasons for the failure by the Welsh Government to meet the biodiversity targets.
“Principally those reasons boil down to a lack of ownership, leadership and willingness to fully embrace biodiversity across the whole Government– effectively, high ambition was not followed up with effective actions and adequate resources.
“We saw plenty of evidence of the positive work which is being done by voluntary organisations and others to protect our natural environment.
“But without the full support of all quarters of the Welsh Government, this positive work can never be enough to halt biodiversity loss, never mind reverse it.
“Without a concerted effort, cutting across all policy areas and involving all relevant organisations, we are risking the future of some of the precious ecosystems and environments that define Wales.
“Biodiversity loss affects us all, and has implications for social and economic policy as well as the environment.
“The Welsh Government needs to recognise this and act urgently if we are not to miss the targets again in ten years’ time.”
The Committee makes 19 recommendations to halt the decline in biodiversity in Wales including:
the Welsh Government to complete and publish an audit of how the Government’s aspiration to halt biodiversity loss is reflected in the current work of all Government Departments and agencies.
To ensure that biodiversity is a central plank of the Welsh Government’s sustainable development policy, and is given a higher priority than has thus far been the case.
the Welsh Government should set out clear lines of responsibility for all statutory organisations involved in this field to enable better prioritisation and coordination of actions on the ground through the Natural Environment Framework.
The Welsh Government should legislate, in the first legislative programme of the Fourth Assembly, to place a duty to support and promote biodiversity on relevant organisations, building on the duty to have regard to biodiversity established by Natural Environment and Rural Communities Act.
ENDS