With the twenty-sixth UN Climate Change Conference, COP26, scheduled to be held in Glasgow under UK presidency in four months' time, this debate re-emphasises the need for parity between actions taken by the Welsh Government to tackle climate change and those taken to tackle biodiversity loss.

The Welsh Conservative amendment re-emphasises the need for Welsh Government to work more closely with the UK Government on the response to the climate emergency and nature recovery. After all, unlike football, nature knows no boundaries. Nature is in crisis across Wales. Despite Wales's stunning landscapes and beautiful scenery, wildlife in Wales is in serious decline. The 'State of Nature Report 2019' found that one in six species in Wales are threatened with extinction and the latest 'The State of Natural Resources Report' summary finds that ecosystem resilience in Wales is declining in line with global trends.

This decline is also reflected in curlew populations in Wales. As Wales's species champion for the curlew since 2016, I'm working with Gylfinir Cymru/Curlew Wales, a collaboration of Government agencies and non-governmental organisations, including the farming unions, formed to try and reverse the dire decline of curlew in Wales—an ecological umbrella or indicator species. The UK regularly hosts up to a quarter of the global curlew-breeding population and the curlew is now considered the most pressing bird conservation priority throughout Wales and the UK. Breeding numbers are in steep decline in Wales, down 44 per cent in the last decade. At current levels of decline, curlew will be extinct as a breeding population in Wales by 2033 without intervention. We've only years to save this iconic and culturally important species and its ethereal voice in the Welsh landscape.

In June 2019, I attended the first ever curlew summit at 10 Downing Street, alongside the senior ornithologist at Natural Resources Wales and Curlew Country's project manager. We heard that sufficient resource will be required to advise, encourage and assist groups of farmers to come together to deliver, monitor and champion curlew and biodiversity across landscapes, and that there is a need to understand the multiple and multispecies benefits from an ecosystem resilience, cultural and natural heritage perspective that can be delivered through curlew conservation action. We also heard that the widespread planting of conifers on uplands had led to massive habitat loss and it was not just the planted land that destroyed the birds, but the land in a large area around the forest ceased to be sustainable habitat for ground-nesting birds, as the forest provides ideal cover for predators, mostly foxes, carrion crows and badgers.

The commendable goal to increase forestry and woodland in Wales must therefore ensure that we have the right trees in the right place to genuinely protect biodiversity. The review of the wider biodiversity and ecosystem benefits of curlew recovery and applicability to Wales—a report commissioned by Natural Resources Wales—states that papers provided a diverse array of evidence showing that curlew recovery would benefit multiple species, both directly and indirectly, underpinning our understanding of curlew as an indicator species. For example, hares give birth on land surfaces, usually farmland, where the young remain motionless, not unlike the curlew, grey partridge, skylark or lapwing, which lay their eggs in a shallow scrape or nest in open farmland. Conservation actions that benefit ground-nesting birds, therefore, also appear to support, for example, hares.

Gylfinir Cymru have been working on a Wales action plan for curlew, which we hope the Welsh Government will endorse. It will identify the most important curlew areas in Wales and emphasise the importance of a well-designed, well-funded sustainable farming scheme, so that farmers can do the right thing for curlew in these places. NGOs have welcomed funding for curlew made available by Welsh Government and NRW this year, but have highlighted that NRW's procurement system and the lack of multi-year funding means that this money was not available for this breeding season, and won't be available for the next one either. It could also only be spent on capital projects, but it is people who will save curlew and nature. There's a real need to ensure good co-ordination and boots on the ground to achieve this. Nature has intrinsic value, but it also—