Wales is failing to tackle ‘alarming’ decline in nature

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 committee called on the government to publish firm proposals for how it intended to save nature, stating it currently lacks a “plan, action and investment”. 

The environmental regulator, Natural Resources Wales (NRW), is responsible for monitoring protected sites, but the committee said some had not been visited for more than 10 years. It also noted that “years of under-investment have stretched NRW too thin, clearly limiting its ability to lead biodiversity recovery effectively”. 

Welsh wildfowler and author Gethin Jones told ST: “It’s appalling that Wales lags so far behind in setting targets to halt the catastrophic decline in Welsh biodiversity. A classic case in point is the curlew, a species that used to breed in the fields around my hometown when I was a youngster, but is now facing extinction as a breeding species in Wales within 10 years, not least because of Welsh government legislation prohibiting the effective control of its main predators. It’s infuriating.”