6. Statement by the Cabinet Secretary for Energy, Planning and Rural Affairs: The Future of Land Management

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:43 pm on 8 May 2018.

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Photo of Lesley Griffiths Lesley Griffiths Labour 5:43, 8 May 2018

Thank you very much, Joyce Watson. I do think, as I said in my answer to David Melding, that some farmers don't want to plant trees on their land because they are concerned about losing it when they may need it for crops. But I think they are now starting to think about it more from a diversification point of view, and I think it's important that we're able to help them and to facilitate that going forward.

I thought, as I say, the report was very good, and it does come up with many recommendations. I did mention about reducing ongoing carbon emissions and increasing carbon sequestration as one of the public goods that we could look at. I think that will help us as part of our response to climate change. There are other things within public goods that I think, again, planting more trees would help around. I mentioned access—again, people think that farmers don't want people on their land. Well, that's not my experience. Farmers are very proud to show what they do on their land to the public, but I think landscape is very important.

Another thing that's come forward from the Brexit round-table is that they want to increase that habitat resilience and really underpin biodiversity and our landscape—so, great opportunities here to be able to do that.