Biodiversity Loss

Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:05 pm on 10 March 2020.

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Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 2:05, 10 March 2020

I thank Jenny Rathbone for that, Llywydd. We spent an earlier part of questions today talking about forests and woodland, and the contribution that that can make to the impact of climate change, and the seagrass development today is another very good example of natural responses to what we see going on around us. I will be very interested to see how that develops around Pembrokeshire.

As far as the Local Places for Nature scheme is concerned, I want to pay tribute to Keep Wales Tidy for the work they are doing with us on this. There will be 800 starter packs available through Keep Wales Tidy, Llywydd. They will provide everything that a local community group or a community council might need—tools, bulbs, advice and so on—to allow a community to create their own butterfly, fruit or wildlife garden. There will be an equal number of packages available for all those three things.

And I know—I saw recently that the Member had been out in Plasnewydd in her own constituency carrying out a street audit of green infrastructure in that very densely populated inner city part of Cardiff. This local places scheme is exactly intended to assist those groups who want to do those small things that make a real difference to biodiversity.

The reason why Keep Wales Tidy went for an early first call is because they and we are very anxious to get this money out there doing good things. It will not be the only call that they will make, but we wanted those organisations that were ready to go and had plans in place to get the money as fast as we were able and then to inspire others to do even more.