Professor Tasman Crowe:

I think the Deputy is alluding to short-term thinking having got us into this mess. People are tending to think on the short-term horizon. That was a theme that came up quite strongly through many of the discussions and deliberations. One of the early addresses we had was on being a good ancestor and the Native American principle of thinking about how a decision will affect the seventh generation hence, rather than just about the immediate timeframe. That message was important and resonated through many of the discussions. One where it was particularly tangible to me in a current context was the agricultural incentive frameworks, which tend to be quite short term.

It is asking farmers to make quite substantial changes to their practice in farming and saying they will get rewarded for the next five years for making this investment, time, and effort. It became clear to me that some of those incentive schemes need to have a longer time horizon and a guarantee of payments for a longer period that transcends the term of a single Government. That requires a significant change in the philosophy going forward.

I come back to the Deputy's point about the enthusiasm of the citizens. He is absolutely right. That was really very striking, especially through a process where there is that discussion and information. People very quickly became very passionate about the whole thing and wanted to make a difference. There is a big groundswell of that enthusiasm out there so I reiterate that push towards providing support and encouragement to community groups. An awful lot of people are very actively trying to do things and they are running into difficulties rather than encouragement and facilitation. That should not be underestimated going forward and the value of supporting them.

The final point I make is a reminder of the Children and Young People’s Assembly on Biodiversity Loss that took place in parallel with this one. There were very powerful advocates in that age bracket when they came and shared some of their perspectives with us. Their recommendations were much more radical than ours in many cases. We have alluded to this already but there is a real push for change across the sides.