Natural Resource Management

Natural Resource Management

The Environment (Wales) Act 2016 puts in place the legislation needed to plan and manage Wales’ natural resources in a more proactive, sustainable and joined-up way.

Part 1 of the Environment Act sets out Wales' approach to planning and managing natural resources at a national and local level with a general purpose linked to statutory 'principles of sustainable management of natural resources' defined within the Act.
The Environment (Wales) Act sets out the requirement for the ‘sustainable management of natural resources’ together with new ways of working to achieve this. There are 3 main constituents to Part 1 of the Environment Act:

1. The State of Natural Resources Report (SoNaRR)- A report produced by Natural Resources Wales that gives an assessment of natural resources and how well Wales is doing to manage them in a sustainable way

2. Natural Resources Policy - A policy produced by Welsh Government that sets out the priorities, risks and opportunities for managing natural resources sustainably. The policy takes into account the findings of the State of Natural Resources report

3. Area Statements –A local evidence base produced by Natural Resources Wales which helps to implement the priorities, risks and opportunities identified in the National Policy and how NRW intends to address these (commencing from late 2017 onwards)

UK National Ecosystem Assessment

The UK National Ecosystem Assessment is the first analysis of the UK’s natural environment in terms of the benefits it provides to society and continuing economic prosperity. It is based around the processes that link human societies and their well-being with the environment and emphasises the role of ecosystems in providing services that bring well-being to people. There is a specific chapter relating to Wales.

The six key findings of the assessment are:

• The natural world, its biodiversity and its constituent ecosystems are critically important to our well-being and economic prosperity, but are consistently undervalued in conventional economic analyses and decision making.
• Ecosystems and ecosystem services, and the ways people benefit from them, have changed markedly in the past 60 years, driven by changes in society.
• The UK’s ecosystems are currently delivering some services well, but others are still in long-term decline.
• The UK population will continue to grow, and its demands and expectations continue to evolve. This is likely to increase pressures on ecosystem services in a future where climate change will have an accelerating impact both here and in the world at large.
• Actions taken and decisions made now will have consequences far into the future for ecosystems, ecosystem services and human well-being. It is important that these are understood, so that we can make the best possible choices, not just for society now but also for future generations.
• A move to sustainable development will require an appropriate mixture of regulations, technology, financial investment and education, as well as changes in individual and societal behaviour and adoption of a more integrated, rather than conventional sectoral, approach to ecosystem management.

The Economics of Ecosystems & Biodiversity (TEEB)

The TEEB study was a major international initiative to draw attention to the global economic benefits of biodiversity, to highlight the growing costs of biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation, and to draw together expertise from the fields of science, economics and policy to enable practical actions moving forward.

Wales Biodiversity Partnership is working to meet these challenges - to secure a future for biodiversity and for future generations

Ecosystem

means "a dynamic complex of plant, animal and micro-organism communities and their non-living environment interacting as a functional unit". (Article 2 of the Convention)