CR-LU5

Sustainability Committee

Inquiry into Carbon Reduction in Wales: Rural Land Use Management and Carbon Reduction

Response from: Welsh Association of National Park Authorities

Thank you for the opportunity to contribute to the latest phase of the Carbon Reduction in Wales Inquiry being undertaken by your Committee.

The three independent National Park Authorities collaborate as the Welsh Association of National Park Authorities (WANPA).  They work together in partnership to promote the interests of Wales’ three National Parks.  One particular aspect of WANPA’s work is to respond to policy consultations, informing discussions with the experience and expertise developed through protected landscape management.

The National Parks have two statutory purposes in the 1995 Environment Act:-

• Conserve and enhance the natural beauty, wildlife and cultural heritage of the National Park.

• Promote opportunities for the understanding and enjoyment of the special qualities of the Park by the public.

In fulfilling these purposes, the National Park Authority has a duty to:-

• Seek to foster the economic and social well being of the local communities within the National Parks.

We wish to respond to your call for evidence by sending you a copy of a paper produced by our colleague, Paul Sinnadurai, Senior Ecologist and Policy Adviser to Brecon Beacons National Park Authority.  The paper was originally produced for a conference earlier this year.   It examines the role of National Parks in the development of "large scale landscape-based solutions to mitigate the worst effects of climate change”, effects expected to disproportionately effect Wales’ uplands and coast.

Although it’s a personal analysis Officers working on the development of a 3 Parks Climate Change Strategy for Wales’ National Parks concur with the conclusions set out on the sixth page and believes this Inquiry - with its focus upon rural land use management - provides an ideal opportunity to bring it to the attention of a wider audience.

Colleagues offered an additional comment related to the enclosed paper and the theme of this phase of your Inquiry.  This concerned the greater emphasis that could be placed upon the use of forests to "soak up” and trap carbon.  Carbon soils are an important factor in the UK, but an equally (if not more) important role could be played by larger, more extensive woodlands that would also help to fix nutrients into the soils.

Paper produced by

Paul Sinnadurai, Senior Ecologist and Policy Advisor, Brecon Beacons National Park Authority

In conjunction with:

Emyr Williams, Director of Conservation, Snowdonia National Park Authority

Mike Howe, Head of Conservation, Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority

Michel Regelous, National Park Management Plan Officer, Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority

Bradley Welsh, National Park Management Plan Officer, Brecon Beacons National Park Authority