Protecting Welsh wildlife

Local TV

We’re catching up with climate committee members in the Senedd who are concerned for Wales’ natural environments, and are looking at surprising ways we’re affected.

Transcript

00:00If there's one thing that sets Wales aside from plenty of places around the world, it's our natural

00:07beauty and wildlife. We're not a big country, but we're absolutely full of incredible scenery

00:12and habitats that play host thousands of different creatures and helps our nature flourish. The

00:18environment, climate change, nature in general are all massive topics nowadays with natural

00:22spaces being wiped out across the planet and the Welsh Government back in 2019 were one of the

00:27first anywhere in the world to declare a climate emergency and one of the possibility of human

00:31impact on nature. On a smaller scale to the massive issues with the global climate, our natural habitats

00:38are at risk in Wales and there are committees, groups and studies ongoing around the clock in

00:43the Senate trying to assess what we can do to help halt and reverse the impact on our nature in Wales.

00:50What I also think worked really well as a member of the economy, trade and rural affairs committee

00:56is the work of Leo Griffith's committee, the climate change committee works hand in glove with the

01:01economy, trade and rural affairs committee in many of these elements as well and a fine example of that

01:06is the inquiry on soil health that the economy, trade and rural affairs committee is undertaking at the

01:12moment because good soil health underpins everything with regards to nature on our land. Food, food

01:20production and productivity, yes, but ensuring healthy soils and healthy microbes in the soils and everything

01:25that we're learning through the committee as well at this present moment really underpins the importance

01:30of good soil health to our nature restoration. Our rivers and seas around the country are at real risk

01:37and Senedd members are concerned that without action they can be massively affected by pollution

01:41in the future. They argue that it takes people from top down to help our marine spaces and keep all of

01:46our lives thriving. Our rivers and seas are heavily polluted. Welsh water and storm overflows account

01:53for approximately 30 per cent based on science. The majority is agricultural. Plastic pollution has

01:59also impacted and I'm pleased though that Welsh Government is investing in the National Seagrass Action Plan

02:05which will help create habitat, absorb carbon and help with flood prevention. It was also really popular

02:11with people and gain and gain their imagination really which was great. That's what we need to do

02:16to bring people along with us. Pollution has a massive impact on our marine spaces. Industrial activity

02:23on our seabed can throw our whole ecosystems out of sync which can have a huge knock-on effect to our

02:28wildlife. Welsh seas are more than a third larger than our land mass and at least 113 million tons of carbon

02:40are already stored in our marine habitats almost 10 years worth of Welsh carbon emissions and as we've heard

02:51already today most of those are actually not in a favourable state.

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