Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 6:15 pm on 10 January 2023.
There are several things in what you said there that I can add to. So, first of all, we will have to work with a group of experts on constructing a review of designated landscapes, and marine and riverscapes as well, so that we have a review that properly looks at what are they trying to protect; is it still worth protecting; is it working; and what would need to happen in this particular designated landscape. And if you think about that—it sounds easy to say—but if you think about the scale of that, we've got a national park, which is a huge area, or we've got a site of special scientific interest, which is sometimes very small. Are they even protecting the right things anymore? Some of the SSSIs were put in place ages ago and are now, frankly, car parks. What are we doing? So, I think a review of the whole thing.
Also, SSSI, what is that to Mr and Mrs Jones in Preseli? Maybe I shouldn't keep using those; I'll find some other people to use, but you know what I mean. What does that mean? What we mean is: this is a landscape in which there is something worth protecting, and we are protecting it by doing this. I just think better language, better descriptions, a better understanding of it, and it also encourages other people to come in—volunteers, people who live around there can have a better understanding of what this landscape actually is and what it's protecting.
Also, what do we mean by protection? Most of our land is farmed. We don't want it to stop being farmed. We want the farmers to protect the way of life that they have and the biodiversity that's there. But, maybe, in some places in Wales we need to have land that isn't farmed, that's actually allowed to have just nature on it. Maybe—I don't know. That's the kind of thing we'll have to consider. Same for the seas. A marine conservation zone does not prevent most fishing. What does it prevent at the moment? We'll have to have a proper conversation about what do we actually mean by this. What is protected? Are there places in the sea where, actually, nothing should happen, or, what do we mean? And the truth is, we don't know. We should know. The definitions that existed in the first place meant something, but, over time, they've degraded. And that just happens. So, now is a great time to review all of that and put a new twenty-first century understanding of what that protection means.
So, we do want to work with you in the immediate future to understand what the review might look like, how we might conduct it, and what we think the outcomes will be. And, as we go through the review, to start to put the protections in place. It's not enough for me to say in eight years, 'Gosh, look, I know how terrible it all is.' That's not what I want at all. So, as we do it, and we select what goes first, we need to start action plans coming in on the back of it. Sometimes, that will be de-designating this landscape. Sometimes it will be, 'Actually, the SSSI is here, but it should be there, because that species has come over here now or whatever.' We've all got examples of that. So, we need to have a good, wide-ranging, not scared to have a real look at what we've got review, and we need that to be accompanied by an action plan that comes behind, where we have a good consultation across Wales about what do we want, what will people put up with, what will they live with, what will they get behind, what will they want to do. There's no point in me saying all of this if 50 per cent of Wales all go, 'Oh, I'm not doing that.' So, we have to do both together.
What came out of COP15 for me was just how important it is to bring the people with you. You can't say, 'Oh, never mind the people, let's do this.' You absolutely have to bring the people with you. And the Canada national parks are really interesting. They own all of the land in the national park. Obviously, we're not in that position, but in the past—not anymore—in the past, they cleared people off it, including the indigenous people who were very angry, not surprisingly. So, the Cree nation were there in numbers at the conference, and being treated entirely differently now by Canada of course, as an independent nation, talking about their way of protecting their lands and what they know that we simply don't know. And that's the other bit, isn't it? We could say that across Wales. The people who live there now, they probably know a lot more about it than some of us do. So, it's about harnessing the power of the indigenous people, whether those people are in a developed nation or not in a developed nation, about what they know about the land and what we need to do. And, actually, that's a real lesson, because the parks are so much better in Canada now they have done that than they were before, and they've got loads of stats to show it. And I'm sure we've got similar things to do here.