3. Will the Minister make a statement on what the Welsh Government is doing to help pollinators? OAQ54267

Thank you. The Welsh Government’s action plan for pollinators, revised in 2018, aims to reduce and reverse the decline in pollinators. The plan was developed with stakeholders and has been recognised as an exemplar of co-design and co-production in the UK. Welsh Government and stakeholders share responsibility for its delivery.

I do welcome all those initiatives by the Welsh Government, and I know that they will help pollinators, but there are other things that can be done. We only have to open our eyes and look around the cities, the towns and the villages, and we can see an abundance of manicured, green, sterile spaces alongside roads and parks and on land surrounding public buildings, like hospitals, schools and offices. I'm sure that, if those areas were well managed, they'd all add up to a substantial amount of habitat that could be helping our pollinators thrive. Cutting grass less frequently would help significantly and allow wild flowers to grow. It's cheap, it's effective, but it also would save the local authorities money. In Holland, they've gone a step further, and they've planted flowers on the rooftops of bus stops, as an example, so we could look at roof space on other buildings. So, what actions are the Welsh Government currently taking to encourage public sector bodies to adopt pollinator-friendly policies when it comes to managing the land around their buildings and the land that they are responsible for?

Thank you. In my opening answer to Joyce Watson, I mentioned the Welsh Government's action plan for pollinators, and we have a taskforce that works to deliver the action plan. The Member will also be aware of Caru Gwenyn, our Bee Friendly scheme, which encourages communities to take positive action for pollinators. I think the point you raise about not cutting verges—we're also seeing a lot of wild meadow roundabouts as well. Interestingly, I read about the bus stops with the gardens on top of the bus shelters at the weekend, and asked officials on Monday if they could look at that. I understand also that some local authorities are now directing the finance that they would have used to cut verges into litter picks, which I think is a bit of a circular system, which I think could be very beneficial, but I think there's a huge amount that we can all do. We can all monitor pollinators to make sure that we're contributing as well.

Minister, would you join in congratulating the Assembly Commission with me on the action it has taken? I clambered up to the top of the Pierhead building a couple of weeks ago, with our excellent staff there, some of whom are now expert beekeepers, and indeed I think some Assembly Members' support staff also have joined the programme. I saw our two hives, and they were very active and, I'm told that we have some of the best bees in the bay—though they go for many miles around, apparently, in their work. That's just one example of what we could be doing. 

On a recent private visit to Chicago, I saw what they're doing with green roofs, and they look fantastic—a great amenity. And that's another area. And can I say, if anyone has seen my desk, they know how committed I am to rather messy approaches to our daily lives? We could replicate this, indeed, on the grass verges and other open areas we have around, to great benefit to the wildlife.

Thank you very much. Yes, sometimes tidy isn't best, is it? I very much welcome what you say about the Assembly Commission. It's very good to hear there are some beehives—I, too, will now clamber up. We've got four Welsh Government offices, now, around Wales, that have beehives in them—or outside them. I think it's great that staff have taken this on in a voluntary role. I know, certainly, that the—. I'm trying to think. I think it might have been the Merthyr offices where I went, and there was an education official who has now become an expert in looking after beehives because she volunteered for the role to do that. I'm very interested in green roofs, as I said. Again, we have got a pilot project, Nature isn't Neat, which is funded by our Rural Communities LEADER scheme from the rural development programme. That develops an area-based approach—so, it can either be a village or a town that becomes a pollinator-friendly area. I know that the pilot is going to focus on Monmouth town in Nick Ramsay's constituency.

I was recently at the opening of a community garden in Wharf Road in Newport, Minister, which I think was a valuable example of how you turn waste ground into an area with flowers and bushes and plants generally that's a valuable contribution. But what I wanted to ask about really was: would you agree with me that, where we have areas of land that are very important for biodiversity and have protections—and I'm thinking of the Gwent levels, which has a number of sites of special scientific interest—we must look to how we can further protect those areas? The Gwent levels are home to the shrill carder bee, which is endangered, sadly, but home to many other pollinators and many other valuable wildlife and plants and flowers and ecosystems. So, would you join me in looking to provide further protection and perhaps consider making the Gwent levels an area of outstanding natural beauty?  

I am aware that there has been a request for the Gwent levels to be given more formal designation and protection as an area of outstanding natural beauty, and that's obviously being considered. But, I think that you make a very important point about wasteland. I suppose that the point that I was trying to make about us all monitoring pollinators and seeing what we can do in those areas is something that I think is—. You know, we need to make sure that—. Pollinators are our responsibility. We need to ensure that we all do that extra thing to make sure that they are sustainable.