Mae angen ar Barciau Cenedlaethol amdanoch

Gweithredwch cyn 6 Mehefin!

Peidiwch a gadael i Weithgor Tirweddau’r Dyfodol Cymru chwalu teulu Parciau Cenedlaethol Prydain.

(Ymddiheurwn nad yw hwn ar gael yn y Gymraeg)

Your help is needed to safeguard National Parks in Wales; please use your voice to protect the family of National Parks. See actions below.

For some time we have been raising concerns about Welsh Government’s plans to legislate on National Parks and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONBs).

In March we asked you to intervene at short notice when we saw a leaked draft version of the  Future Landscapes Wales (FLW) report.  Disturbingly the report emphasised the importance of enabling development whilst containing no reference whatsoever to the conservation purpose of National Parks.

Your response was magnificent.  Within 24 hours the scheduled Welsh Assembly debate was postponed, when your efforts alerted Assembly Members to the fact that they were being asked to debate something so important without having even had the chance to see the FLW report.

As the story broke in the media Welsh Government were quick to say that this was ‘only a draft’ of the report.  Well now Welsh Government has published the final version FLW Finalised Report (English) and it is nearly identical to that draft.  Apart from being full of jargon and badly drafted, the final version continues to give a deliberately false account of the important Marsden report which Welsh Government had previously sidelined.

The Marsden report said we must keep a key conservation safeguard known as the Sandford Principle, so that National Parks and AONBs continue to be properly protected and managed for their natural beauty, wildlife and cultural heritage.  None of these concepts can be found anywhere in the FLW report.

Be fydd yn digwydd os nad ydym ni’n actio?

If the Future Landscapes Wales proposals go forward unchallenged, we will be heading for the break up of the UK family of National Parks as we have known them for over 60 years.  Without a clear restatement of the Sandford Principle, and without a clear commitment to the conservation of landscape, natural beauty and wildlife, the National Parks in Wales could be relegated to a lower tier of Protected Landscapes as defined internationally by the IUCN .

We can’t let this happen. Our National Parks mean more than a badge and a marketing brand.

Rhaid gweithredu cyn 6 Mehefin

Beth yw ‘wneud os yn byw yng Nghymru

Write to your five Assembly Members (that’s your constituency Member and all four of your regional Members) and ask them to help.

Click on this map to get the email addresses of your Assembly Members.

Dywedwch wrthyn nhw:

  • why you love the National Parks of Wales – Snowdonia, Brecon Beacons and Pembrokeshire Coast and how you benefit from their existence
  • that you hope they will be seen to stand up for National Parks in the debate on 6th June, which will be broadcast live on senedd.tv

Gofynnwch iddynt:

  • stand up for proper protection, management, and resources for National Parks and AONBs in the debate on 6th June
  • make landscape, natural beauty, wildlife and cultural heritage central to the debate
  • insist on a Sandford-type conservation principle so that, when there is an unavoidable conflict of purposes, conservation has the higher priority
  • insist on full public consultation for any proposed changes to the purposes of National Parks
  • point out that key conservation organisations like the Wildlife Trusts are unable to support the FLW report because it excludes the Sandford Principle

Make your email short and positive.  Assembly Members are genuinely extremely busy people and sort emails are more likely to be taken notice of.

Beth yw ‘wneud os yn byw tu allan i Gymru

Write to Lesley Griffiths, Cabinet Secretary for Environment and Rural Affairs  at Correspondence.Lesley.Griffiths@gov.wales and copy your message to the other party spokespeople for environment – Simon Thomas (Plaid Cymru) Simon.Thomas@assembly.wales and  David Melding (Conservative) David.Melding@assembly.wales

Tell her: How much and why National Parks in Wales matter to you.

Ask her: to show that she understands the importance of protecting, conserving and managing our last big areas of unspoilt countryside.  Ask her to move beyond the narrow and old-fashioned view that getting more benefits from National Parks means ‘freeing them up’ to more development and more concrete.

Diolch o galon i chi am helpu i amddiffyn ein Parciau Cenedlaethol.

 

Comments are closed.