My Lords, I welcome this group on the subject of trees. As we know from the work of the noble Baroness, Lady Young of Old Scone, and the Woodland Trust, which I think she chairs, only some 7% of our woodland is in good condition. We have a very small percentage of cover—13%—as has been noted by the noble Earl, Lord Kinnoull, and ancient woodland covers roughly 2.5% of our area.
I have put my name to Amendments 260 and 283, but I shall start with some comments on Amendments 258 and 259 about ancient woodlands and SSSIs. I very much take the comments of the noble Lord, Lord Lucas, in that SSSIs can be complicated areas involving many rules. One issue that we have not tackled in the Bill, and which appals me, is that—if I have this right—the target by which to get 75% of SSSIs in good condition is 2045. I am sure the Minister will put me right if I am wrong, but it is an atrocious statement of where we are and where we intend to be if that is the case. Having said that, I can say on behalf of my colleagues that we would very much welcome this sort of amendment, even if it were not drafted exactly as at present.
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In terms of biosecurity, too, I am very aware that the noble Lord, Lord Gardiner—who used to be Minister for Defra in this House and was replaced by the noble Lord, Lord Benyon—was a great advocate of biosecurity. I always looked forward to him coming to the Dispatch Box to reassure us that one of his key missions was to ensure that this country’s biosecurity was improved. As noble Lords have already said, this is a huge challenge, not just in terms of trees but in other areas as well. However, trees certainly focus this because they make such a big difference to the landscape. Where I live in Cornwall, I have some splendid ash trees along the frontage by the road. It would be a huge change for me and for the landscape if those disappeared. At the moment they are in good condition, but I expect that that will change at some season in the future. Again, I am sure that my colleagues are entirely behind finding a way of pushing forward this amendment.
On the amendments I have put my name to, I turn to Amendment 260 from the noble Baroness, Lady Young of Old Scone, on a tree strategy. What she says makes a lot of sense. We all remember that there was almost an outbidding by political parties on tree planting in the last two general elections. I sometimes wondered where these trees were going to come from. What was the highest bid? I think we got into the billions, but I cannot remember. While one welcomes that competitive edge, the real issue is about delivery, followed by tree management, where they are planted, the types of species that are planted, and the balance between climate change, biodiversity and even the commercial sector, so that we know where we are going.
When it comes to moving those action plans into a proper strategy, strategies can often be made, forgotten and put on the shelf. However, I believe that that investment, which is for a hundred years, is a strategy that we understand; it is generally accepted and is based on the science and the nature recovery networks. This is something that I would welcome, and I hope the noble Baroness, Lady Young of Old Scone, will pursue it.
No one so far has talked about peatlands, which are dealt with in Amendment 283. I am very pleased to put my name to that amendment in the name of the noble Baroness, Lady Jones of Whitchurch. This is a very contemporary and high-profile issue. As I have said before, I had the privilege last month of going on to Bodmin Moor and seeing the peatland restoration there. It is a massive task that is gradually moving through our countryside, particularly in uplands, moorlands and such areas. We are working to protect biodiversity or, in many cases, using natural solutions to stop run-off and flooding downstream, as well as carbon sequestration, and these areas are jewels in our countryside and landscape. This is one of the habitats and ecosystems that is particularly important to the United Kingdom, and we hold a large proportion of global blanket peatlands.
We should protect these areas better. I find it very difficult to understand why we still permit peat burning in those areas. I understand why, commercially, that is often the case for grouse shooting in other areas, but this is clearly something that we need to change. We also need to change altogether peat extraction for
horticultural purposes, where we have had a complete failure of voluntary schemes. I will be interested to hear from the Minister where we are on that as well.
I support this amendment very strongly, but may I ask Hansard just to stop reporting for a minute? I have an environmental confession to make. I used to be in the freight industry and I operated a transport depot very near to where my noble friend Lady Bakewell lives at the moment, on the Somerset Levels in a place called Bridgwater—that is Bridgwater in Somerset, where you do not have an “E” in the middle of the word; if you put one in, it is very bad. One thing that I used to transport was cut peat for horticultural purposes out of the Somerset Levels. I apologise to my colleague that I ever did that; it was before such things were even realised. But now we have no excuse for that sort of commercial activity. On that basis, I give complete personal backing to Amendment 283 from the noble Baroness, Lady Jones of Whitchurch.