Ms Oonagh Duggan:

There was a reference to being masters of the universe and a question on how we change our approach. The pandemic has shown us that we are not masters of the universe, especially given the likely links or origins of the pandemic with the trade in wildlife and loss of habitat. If there was ever a message, that is it. We have been able to address the pandemic by treating it as an emergency.

Two years ago, we declared a climate and biodiversity emergency. What we need to see now is action on that. How do we increase awareness of the losses of birds? It would be great to see the media discuss it more. We see many nice nature films and television programmes. These are important to raise awareness, but we need to see more programming on the reality of what is happening, the losses of species and the challenges to restoration of populations.

We have an opportunity now to restore populations. Between the forestry programme, Project Woodland and the Common Agricultural Policy we have the opportunity to invest in restoration. This should be at the heart of all decision making relating to restoring biodiversity and tackling climate change.