The Welsh Government must dramatically improve its work to protect Wales’ biodiversity, according to a Senedd Committee.

The Climate Change, Environment and Infrastructure Committee’s latest report examined the Welsh Government’s efforts to protect nature and found numerous examples of ‘delays, undelivered commitments, and missed deadlines.’

The Welsh Government’s pledge to save Wales’ nature lacks ‘a plan, action and investment’, says the Committee.

The committee is urging the Welsh Government to make good on its pledge by publishing a new action plan for nature, setting out its strategy to plug the massive ‘nature funding gap’ and speeding up delivery.

In June 2021, the Welsh Government promised to set legally binding biodiversity targets, but they recently admitted to the Committee that these targets are now unlikely to be set for another four years. According to the Committee, if saving nature is really a priority for the Welsh Government, they would set the targets much sooner.

The committee’s report also found that key documents which are meant to guide the Welsh Government’s biodiversity work, such as the Natural Resources Policy and the Nature Recovery Action Plan, are years out-of-date.

Continued promises to update these documents have also gone unmet, which the committee says is ‘deeply concerning’.

Llyr Gruffydd MS, Chair of the Climate Change, Environment and Infrastructure Committee, said: “After decades of pollution, urbanisation and the impact of climate change, Wales’ nature is in trouble.

“One in six Welsh species are threatened with extinction and our wildlife has decreased on average by 20% in the last thirty years. It is encouraging that the Welsh Government acknowledges that this is a serious issue and that they’ve committed to stopping and reversing the decline in our biodiversity.

“But the unfortunate reality is that the Welsh Government’s numerous plans, strategies and policies have failed to halt this decline. And it’s clear that this is because there has been little investment or action to make good on these promises.

“If the Welsh Government is serious about saving Wales’ nature, then it cannot ignore this report, and they must start following through on their words with actions before it’s too late.”

Both the Welsh Government and Natural Resources Wales are identified as being under-staffed in today’s report.

The report concludes that ‘years of under-investment have stretched NRW too thin, and this has clearly limited its ability to lead biodiversity recovery effectively’.

The committee states that, without more funding to NRW, several key environmental initiatives championed by the Welsh Government will fail.

According to the Committee, the current legislation in Wales, the Environment (Wales) Act 2016, which was seen as innovative at the time, is not delivering for nature as intended.

The Welsh Government is planning on introducing a new law to the Senedd before the summer to improve biodiversity.

The committee is urging the Welsh Government to use this new law to right the wrongs of the current one.

It should include a target to halt and reverse the loss of nature in Wales by 2030 and to achieve nature recovery by 2050.