In partnership with a number of organisations, Natural Resources Wales has published the Green Recovery: Priorities for Action Report on behalf of the The Green Recovery Task and Finish Group. The report focuses on what can be done in the near-term using innovation, as well as identifying more medium-term changes that should be examined by the Welsh Government to create a greener Wales.
By identifying a range of proposals to be taken forward with urgency, the Task and Finish Group highlighted that change can happen at pace, and projects and schemes can act as beacons of achievement for others to emulate. A key aspect of the report is liberating the ‘communities of interest’ in order to enable communities to take action themselves.
The report discusses the major issues Welsh Government need to tackle as part of a green recovery, and the common threads of the report include:
- Building the resilience of the Welsh food system and growing food locally.
- Nature and wildlife tourism opportunities linked to increased interest in nature and the environment.
- Development of alternative financial models and instruments to incentivise investment in the green recovery.
The report notes incremental change will not be enough to drive the systemic and transformative changes needed for a socially just and green recovery, and it will be interesting to see how the Welsh Government will implement the reports and its effect on rural Wales.
