Natural Environment and Rural Communities Bill

Amendment No. 272 refers to ““conversation””, which is slightly confusing and why we are all falling over it so much. It also refers to ““increasing biodiversity””. We certainly support this amendment. It takes us back to the debate that we had on the general purposes of Natural England, when some of us felt that nature conservation is a perhaps even passive activity. We spent a lot of time on the meaning of conservation and so on. I heard the Minister’s helpful definition, but it still seems to us that increasing biodiversity is a more active role and would therefore be more helpful. I shall listen to the Minister’s reply on Amendment No. 273 with careful attention. Does Clause 33(1)(b) refer only to the JNCC—in which case I would understand why it refers only to the ““understanding of nature conservation””, as that is more the JNCC’s role? However, it also refers to the UK conservation bodies which include bodies charged with far wider purposes. There is a difficulty because those bodies should be fostering exactly the sort of things that the noble Baroness, Lady Byford, has spoken about. My understanding is that the JNCC would have the one role and the conservation bodies would have the more practical role of fostering the ““practice”” role, as the noble Baroness’s amendment puts it. Two different roles are being talked about in Clause 33 and that leads to confusion.