The Countryside Alliance has submitted evidence to the Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee of the Welsh Parliament which is examining the Wales Environment Bill.

The Bill sets out certain environmental principles and an environmental objective which ministers, and other public bodies will have to apply in developing policy; establish an environmental governance body - the Office of Environmental Governance Wales (OEGW); and creates a framework for setting biodiversity targets.

While the Alliance supports the general principles and approach of the Bill, which is very similar to the Environment Act 2021 in England, we have raised a number of concerns. We have highlighted the current use, or abuse, of the precautionary principle to restrict some activities such as shooting and land management practices, the potential implications of biodiversity targets for farmers and land managers, and the lack of independence of the OEGW. The OEGW needs to be genuinely independent both in its membership and its funding. We have seen with Natural Resources Wales how bodies that are supposed to be independent of government can become politicised and where the government can instruct them to adopt policies that are contrary to the evidence, such as game shooting on Welsh Government land.

The Alliance will continue to engage as the Bill progresses and seek to ensure it is robust, fair, and proportionate in its approach so it actually delivers genuine benefit for Wales and its communities and countryside.