Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. The state of nature report gives the clearest picture to date of the states of species across land and sea, and it sounds the alarm for the natural world. One in six species in Wales risk extinction. Butterfly numbers have fallen 52 per cent since 1976, and across the UK there are 40 million fewer birds compared to 50 years ago. Thirty per cent of land-dwelling mammals are at risk of disappearing altogether, and as the Assembly's lapwing champion, I'm devastated that breeding populations have fallen from 14,000 pairs in 1970 to just 700 today. And, across the world, biodiversity is under increasing threat. The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services report in May warned that 1 million species globally are at risk of extinction. 

But it's not all doom and gloom. When we invest in land, in nature, it can flourish. Conservation success stories are in the report. Species like bitterns and large blue butterflies have been saved through concerted action. But time is short. The chair of IPBES has warned that the window for action to restore ecosystems is expected to close over the next decade. So, we need to strengthen protection of our natural world, undertake species recovery projects, ensure our best sites are well managed, improve environmental standards, and ensure future land management payments drive ecological recovery and more. There's a growing movement demanding this change, and as policy makers, it falls to us to enable the recovery of species and tackle the climate emergency. And the time to act, as the report says, is now.