Protecting Biodiversity

Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Environment, Energy and Rural Affairs – in the Senedd at 2:17 pm on 17 July 2019.

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Photo of Lesley Griffiths Lesley Griffiths Labour 2:17, 17 July 2019

Thank you. Farmers certainly are part of our response in relation to biodiversity. The farm I visited to launch the consultation, the field I was standing in, the farmer told me very proudly that there was between 90 and 100 tonnes of carbon per hectare stored in that field. So, you can see why farmers are so important in relation to biodiversity. Of course, we have looked at the capacity. We're not starting from a blank page. We've got Rural Payments Wales. We have always said that it is Welsh Government that will obviously bear the brunt of those resource issues. So, I am confident that if the consultation goes the way that we think it will, and people will want that single scheme, because certainly that was what farmers and land managers who responded to the first consultation told us, that we will have the capacity to do it. But, I'm not underestimating it; it is a huge undertaking.