Preserving Welsh Wildlife

Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Environment, Energy and Rural Affairs – in the Senedd at 2:03 pm on 23 January 2019.

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Photo of Helen Mary Jones Helen Mary Jones Plaid Cymru 2:03, 23 January 2019

In your response to Mohammad Asghar, you rightly highlight the importance of the 'State of Birds in Wales 2018' report, and we have, of course, some incredibly internationally important populations—I'm thinking, for example, of the gannetry on Grassholm; I could list a whole load. Obviously, some of the investment that's already been made to protect those habitats is beginning to show success, and ensuring that we adequately fund schemes and initiatives to recover and continue to recover natural environments is key, and that includes enabling Natural Resources Wales to be fully resourced around its conservation remit, which is, of course, a challenge. What discussions have you and your Government had, Minister, to mitigate the risk that we may no longer be able to access the EU funds that you mentioned, including initiatives such as the LIFE funding stream, which has been key in enabling some of the large scale species recovery and environment projects that have been undertaken here? How can that incredibly invaluable investment be replaced and maintained?