Part of Oral Answers to Questions — Environment, Food and Rural Affairs – in the House of Commons am 10:30 am ar 21 Mai 2009.
No, no, no. I know that the hon. Lady has genuine concerns about this, but the wide variety of stakeholders engaged in this issue recognise that the targets we set were ambitious, possibly beyond our reach. As we head to 2010 and look at resetting them, it is important that they are not only stretching and ambitious, but realistic and achievable. It is right that we have driven towards achieving those targets and that the UK leads the way in tackling biodiversity issues. Far from there being nothing but gloom, we should not forget that 88 per cent. of our sites of special scientific interest are now in favourable or improving condition, compared with 57 per cent. in 2003, and that our UK biodiversity action plan is driving the way forward.