I am the species champion for the twite—a small, beautiful bird, and a rare bird. But, thanks to the restoration work by agriculturists and others of the twite's habitat in Snowdonia, it appears that the species is on the rise again. So, there is hope. By planning, by doing that restorative work, and working in partnership, rare species can be revived. The situation facing nature in Wales and the world is clear to everyone, and the statistics are very sobering. Every sector, every community, and every corner of Wales will be affected very seriously by nature decline. And those who will feel the greatest impact will be our children and young people—the next generation.

Many young people are concerned about the future, and it's a duty on the Government of any nation to provide solutions, to demonstrate that the nature crisis is being taken seriously and, more importantly than anything, to set out clear steps that can be taken to overcome the situation. Through nature restoration and providing more opportunities for children to access nature, we can provide a wide range of benefits to our children and young people, in terms of their education, their health, their well-being and, most importantly, we can offer hope for the future. But we have to prevent the decline by setting statutory targets to overcome the decline of biodiversity, and then follow up on that by creating a genuine increase in biodiversity.

According to Estyn research, the majority of practitioners note that open-air education promotes engagement and enjoyment in learning. But even though there are clear advantages for children and young people emanating from their link with the natural environment, research has shown that the time that children spend on their experiences of the natural world is declining, without mentioning the fact that nature is itself declining, making it even more difficult for children and young people to enjoy the natural world. And even worse than that, the decline in nature and the lack of access to nature that emanates from that is having an impact on children living in poverty more than any other children, exacerbating social inequality and in terms of education and health.

Biodiversity is declining, there's no doubt about that, but we can do something about it. We have to safeguard the twite, we have to restore nature for the benefit of the people of Wales for the future and for the benefit of the future of Wales. So, we are calling on the Minister and the Government to do the right thing for the benefit of nature, for the benefit of education, for the benefit of the health of our children and young people and for the benefit of the next generation, and the way forward is to set out a robust framework, with a focus and a clear objective by introducing nature restoration targets. Thank you.