1. What steps is the Welsh Government taking to protect and enhance biodiversity in South Wales West? OAQ54847

I thank the Member for that question. The Welsh Government supports a wide range of measures to protect and enhance biodiversity in South Wales West. To provide just one example, at Kenfig burrows, we are investing £428,000 to restore complex sand-dune ecosystems, supporting scarce and specialised species, such as orchids and song birds. 

Thank you, First Minister. With my region home to one of the last remaining colonies of the fen raft spider, and as the species champion for this rarest of British spiders, I take a keen interest in preserving the biodiversity of South Wales West. My region is also home to one of the greatest example of sand-dune habitat in Europe—the Kenfig national nature reserve, as you've just mentioned. First Minister, in just a few short months, these 1,300 acres of managed coastal sand-dunes and wetlands will be potentially left without any management. Bridgend council walks away from running the nature reserve on New Year's Eve and a lease for its future management is yet to be signed. It is vital that the Kenfig national nature reserve is properly managed going forward in order to protect this vital part of our natural heritage and an important part of the nation's biodiversity. First Minister, please can you update us on progress being made by Natural Resources Wales to take on the long-term lease for the nature reserve and the steps they will take to protect the many rare species of plants and animals that call it home?

I thank the Member for that supplementary question and for the work that she does as the species champion for the fen raft spider. As she says, there are only a tiny cluster of sites in south Wales now that support that spider, and it's a good example of why urgent action is needed to reverse the decline in species and in biodiversity across Wales. Of course, Caroline Jones is right as well to point to the importance of the dunes and the ecosystem that it supports in the Kenfig burrows area. Llywydd, I pointed to investment that the Welsh Government is making—nearly £0.5 million there—but that's only part of what we are doing with others in that part of Wales. There is the sustainable management scheme, the Dunes 2 Dunes project—another £312,000, focusing on the landscape between Kenfig burrows and Merthyr Mawr warren, again a place where we are managing dunes habitat to improve biodiversity and to provide benefits to the local community.

I know that NRW and Bridgend County Borough Council are working together to make sure that there is a long-term plan to create a resilient ecological network in that part of Wales, just as we are in so many other parts of our very beautiful nation. 

I'm sure you'll join me in thanking the many volunteers who love the Kenfig reserve and who have contributed countless hours of their time to it, and, of course, they've challenged the trust that owns the site about its future. Could I also just to take this chance, as it's Christmas, to thank the environment Minister and NRW for their correspondence and engagement on this over recent months? However, I've got to say that it seems unlikely to me that NRW will have themselves the capacity to deal with the daily operational control of this site, and they will probably need partners in the future. Can you tell me what your expectations of NRW during this period are likely to be, whether you'll be offering them any one-off funding, or supporting additional human resource for this important task, and do you have any advice for the trust that actually owns this site about permitting income generation there that can contribute towards the cost of conservation?

I thank the Member for that. My expectation of NRW is that it will proceed in the way that we expect things to be done in Wales, and that is in close conversation and partnership with both other public bodies and, as Suzy Davies has said, with those voluntary organisations and the many volunteers who provide their time to them in that part of Wales. We want NRW to engage with those organisations, with the other public authorities, to come up with a plan that will deal with the management of this very important ecosystem well into the future. And that is the way that NRW are used to doing things—whether it is the large-scale investment, of the sort that we've already described at Kenfig burrows, or whether it's in the work that they do supporting very local community groups, through the landfill disposal community scheme, in the Member's own area; £8,000, right at the other end of the scale, to save Priors meadow, one of Gower's last remaining historic hay meadows. The approach that we take, right across the spectrum, is, as Suzy Davies said, to recognise the contribution that those local groups and those local volunteers make, and then to work with public authorities to maximise the contribution that we can make in that sort of partnership.

First Minister, obviously the dunes are one ecosystem, but another variety of the ecosystem is forestry, and particularly in the Afan valley, where we've seen many trees being felled by NRW because of various circumstances. But do you agree with me that, when harvesters come in, and are contracted to fell those trees, they should remove all of the trees? Because there are many tree stumps, tree logs, left in the Afan valley—left on the ground, just simply rotting—when they could have been used for biomass, for example, and we could then replant more safely, because, whilst logs are on the ground, you can't replant properly. And when are we replanting the whole of the system, because it is crucial that, if we're going to fell trees, we replant trees, so we can keep on building the ecosystem up?

I thank David Rees for that. He's right, of course, to point to the real impact in the Afan valley of larch disease, and that has resulted in the need for felling of trees in that forest. We know that leaving some trees to rot, to provide habitats for insects and others, is important, but that's a minority, of course. And, as he says, other trees that have been felled need to be removed and dealt with in other ways. I think it's very important, Llywydd, that, in the Afan valley, the replanting, the restocking of that area provides a resilient forest for the future, and that's why NRW has taken the opportunity in the Afan valley to restock the area with a diverse range of trees. We understand that monoplanting of just single species leaves those areas vulnerable when disease strikes. To provide resilience, you need a wide range of different species, and that will make sure that we won't have a repetition of some of the species attacks that we've seen in parts of our woodland, not just with larch, but with ash and other species across Wales.

Question 2 [OAQ54850] has been withdrawn. Question 3, Hefin David.