4. What action is being taken by the Welsh Government to protect peatlands? OAQ51359

The Welsh Government is committed to bringing all peatlands supporting semi-natural habitats into sustainable management by 2020 and has established an integrated programme of delivery to ensure this target is met. The current programme is improving the condition of our peatlands, and we have secured funding for further action.

Can I just remind you, and perhaps everybody else, that I did congratulate you when you came to committee? So I will add a further congratulations in here, but it has already been done.

What I was going to ask is: what progress has been made towards the target of getting all peatlands in Wales into restoration management by 2020, and do you expect that to be done on a linear basis, or do you expect it exponentially or inverse exponentially?

Thank you, and thank you again for joining in with the congratulations.

Can I thank Mike Hedges for his interest in this aspect of Welsh Government work? The Welsh Government is committed to bringing all peatlands support and semi-natural habitats into sustainable management by 2020, and has established an integrated programme of delivery to ensure this target is met. We have strong evidence from our monitoring programme that our integrated approach is having a positive impact, improving the condition and resilience of our peatlands. Our land management scheme, Glastir, is making a significant contribution to this programme, with over 65 per cent of our target area already under Glastir management. And I think our EU funds are playing an important role in supporting us to improve the condition of approximately 690 hectares of our most important peatland sites.

Minister, having previously just now congratulated you, I think I should now switch into attack mode. [Laughter.] Otherwise, you will be given false reassurance about how you will be treated in this Chamber.

I think this is a really important question. Peatlands are the most important terrestrial carbon store in the UK—20 times more carbon stored there than in UK forests. You say that you have secured funding, but a lot of the funding at the moment for the management scheme is through EU LIFE funding. I just wonder what's going to happen to that. Are there any plans for 2020-1? Obviously, restoring these peatlands and then maintaining them—the maintaining bit is going to require ongoing funding.

Thanks for the question. I'm under no illusions that I should just make the most of the warm words of congratulations until we move on to real business in the Chamber.

It really is a very important area, and really important that we are able to sustain that going forward. I'm sure the Member appreciates that, being new to the portfolio, I'm still in discussions on how we take that forward after 2020. So, I'm happy to follow that up in writing to you.FootnoteLink

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