I am very proud to be the species champion for the noble swift. I represent the most intensely urban constituency in Wales, and the sight and sound of swifts are one of the wonders of our summer evenings. Ely in Cardiff West is one of their preferred summer haunts. A survey in 2019 identified 14 nesting sites in those buildings. No survey could be carried out last year, and the results of this year's survey will be available in August, but we have one testimony from an RSPB member who said, 'I was in Ely last week, and there were loads of swifts just above the rooftops'. So, I expect the nesting numbers there to be high. If any refurbishment of council or housing association properties is due to take place there, swift nesting should be taken into consideration and nest boxes installed. It would be a great pity if city planners were not aware of the importance of the area for swifts. They must include nesting provision in their requirements for relevant developments.

Despite that positive evidence, the swift is rated amber across the UK for conservation status. In Wales, it has been recorded as the bird in steepest decline since 1994, according to the breeding bird survey. The breeding in Wales is down by three quarters—a more rapid loss than across the UK as a whole. So, what are the reasons for this decline? The key threat is considered to be the loss of nesting sites when buildings are restored or demolished. Mitigation work rarely takes place, and I'm not aware of environmental impact assessments taking place that pay due regard to this. What about the lack of food resources for swifts? The use of insecticides is likely to be reducing the availability of aerial invertebrates, which is what they feed off.

At the moment, the RSPB says there's no evidence that decline is due to problems at the African wintering grounds for the swift or along their migration routes. That might change with climate change, but for now, clearly, the guilty parties are in Britain, because other parts of Europe are not experiencing the same decline. So, we really do need to take it seriously. Swift boxes and swift bricks need to be de rigueur on all suitably high new buildings. I know that the Minister for Climate Change has been proactively looking at this and working to enshrine that into planning law, and I'd be most grateful if we can hear when we may be able to make that stick. 

I'm very pleased that the Welsh Government is fully cognisant of the nature emergency. I understand that the Welsh Government is going to vote in favour of the Plaid motion, and that's fantastic, but declaring a nature emergency isn't going to be sufficient. We are all going to have to put our shoulders to the wheel to prevent the otherwise inevitable extinction of whole species, which, as Delyth Jewell already pointed out, we cannot allow, for the sake of future generations. 

We have to tread more lightly on this earth. I heard at lunchtime, along with several other Members, the devastation that is also caused not just to the land, but also to our oceans, and I know the Minister attended that as well. I did mention, after the Minister had left, the Seaspiracy documentary, which is on the internet, and which is utterly devastating. We are destroying our oceans across the world, because of greed, basically, and we absolutely have to do something about that. I'm absolutely not convinced that the UK Government deal on leaving the EU has made an iota of difference to the destruction of our seas around our island, and has obviously reduced our ability to persuade other people, other countries, to work together on preventing the elimination of whole species across our oceans.

You could argue that leaving the EU free market, having slammed the door on the ability of the fishing industry to export to the continent, is a blunt instrument for restoring biodiversity loss, as, if you can't sell them, you're unlikely to fish them out of the water. But that's no consolation to Welsh seafood businesses—