Minister for Climate Change Julie James has today (Monday, October 3) confirmed that Wales is tripling its peatland restoration targets in response to the newly published Biodiversity Deep Dive.

"Today's Biodiversity Deep Dive helps us urgently rethink our relationship with the natural world and how to make the next best choices which benefits us and the future generations of Wales," James said.

James said that she worked with experts and practitioners over the summer to undertake the Biodiversity Deep Dive "to develop a set of collective actions we can take in Wales to support nature's recovery".

She said that reduction in "biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse" is the main target of the restorations.

In a statement from the Welsh government, the "vanishing of around half of Wales' animal and plant life" was attributed to the loss of forests, the plundering of seas and pollution caused by human activity.

"If we give nature a helping hand, it returns the gift in the bucket-load," James said.

James said that the prioroty of the Welsh government is to transform existing terrestrial, freshwater and marine protected sites.

She plans to do this by expanding and accelerating the Nature Networks Programme to help improve the condition and connectivity of protected sites and make them more resilient to climate change.

"We will raise the ambition set out in our National Peatland Action Programme, so that by 2030 the programme will be delivering at a scale capable of reaching the net zero 2050 target of 45,000ha of peatland restored," she said.

Biodiversity Deep Dive

The Biodiversity Deep Dive set following recommendations: