To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs what progress his Department has made on the development of biodiversity programmes across schools since January 2020.

Mr Poots

Our young people are the key to safeguarding our environment and tackling the biodiversity crisis. Acknowledging that, DAERA funds Keep Northern Ireland Beautiful to deliver the Eco-Schools programme in Northern Ireland. That highly successful endeavour makes environmental awareness and action an intrinsic part of the life and ethos of our schools, with a focus on practical, positive environmental behavioural change. Since 2020, Keep Northern Ireland Beautiful has progressed two programmes that focus on biodiversity in schools through the development of school garden projects. The productive biodiversity gardens programme, in partnership with Radius Housing, has involved 16 primary schools to date, and the upcoming stage will involve a further 23 primary schools. The productive outdoor learning gardens programme is delivered in partnership with Danske Bank and has created an outdoor learning space in 11 schools, with spaces at a further 11 to be developed. Work is also under way to support the development of a new GCSE module on biodiversity recovery, and biodiversity was listed as one of the three key topics in nearly half of the most recent tranche of Green Flag applications, thus showing the importance that our young people place on biodiversity. The tackling plastic project, in partnership with Keep Northern Ireland Beautiful, aims to raise awareness of the problem of single-use plastics and to provide support to reduce consumption. All schools here have been given resources on plastic in marine environments, and school workshops have been delivered to complete single-use plastic audits and action plans to help them reduce consumption. Additionally, 11 webinars were delivered, focusing on tackling single-use plastics, and 75 schools have signed the Plastic Promise, making a commitment to reduce single-use plastics at school and at home. In 2021-22, my Department provided funding to the Lyric Theatre to continue the delivery of a short performance piece on waste prevention and plastic pollution. That will be performed to an audience of over 3,000 Key Stage 2 pupils and will offer children solutions that they can easily understand and undertake. The competition on plastic in schools, which is delivered in partnership with Queen's University, the Department of Education and Keep Northern Ireland Beautiful, gives pupils an opportunity to win monetary prizes for work on investigating the use and disposal of single-use plastics in their schools. The rural pollinator scheme —

Mr Speaker

The Minister's time is up.

Mr Poots

OK, thank you, Mr Speaker.

Mr Poots

We are doing a key piece of work on marine protected areas (MPAs). We are hoping to deliver that in 2024 in conjunction with the development of a blue-carbon policy. We can see the evident benefits of investing in and protecting our seas, which contain a third of our biodiversity, while at the same time ensuring that the people who live and work in those places can continue to enjoy that habitat and earn a living off it. We have been looking at the moorings for yachts in Strangford lough and how we can ensure that they do not cause damage to key parts of the seabed. Therefore, pieces of work are already taking place in Strangford lough.

Miss Reilly

A huge amount of engagement with young people on this issue in particular is carried out by groups such as the Belfast Hills Partnership, which launched its Wild Youth programme early last month. What engagement does the Department have with groups such as the Belfast Hills Partnership when it comes to supporting campaigns for young people?

Mr Poots

Recently, we supported the acquisition of a substantial tract of land in the Belfast Hills for the Woodland Trust. We now have further support going to the National Trust for it to acquire land. All of that land will become accessible to the public and be planted out and used in a way that supports biodiversity in the Belfast hills and creates access for the young people who live in the area and, indeed, people who visit the area.

Mrs Dodds

Minister, do you agree that farmers play a vital role in managing our natural environment and encouraging biodiversity, and that without their work there would be much greater land abandonment in Northern Ireland? Do you further agree that farmers are part of the solution to our climate issues rather than part of the problem, as some in the House would suggest?

Mr Poots

I thank the Member for raising that point, because land abandonment is a significant issue. It was a significant issue a number of years ago in Scotland when many crofters left the land, and a consequence of the wilding that took place after that was less biodiversity. People need to wake up to the fact that managed land can improve biodiversity and that wilding land often leads to less biodiversity. Farmers are keen to engage in all these things. They are keen to ensure that they improve biodiversity on their land. We see that in the uptake of environmental farming and other schemes whereby farmers are out planting trees and hedges and putting in protections for waterways and so forth. A lot of work is going on in the farming community, and there is a real desire to do more.

Dr Aiken

I thank the Minister for his answers. I declare an interest as a governor at an excellent primary school, Kilbride Central Primary School. We have an election, so I thought that I would mention that. One of the big issues that people raise with us is this: we want to do some planting of trees but are finding it enormously difficult to source trees because of the problems that we have with the protocol. What can we do to sort that ridiculous situation out?

Mr Poots

First, I am delighted that Kilbride Central Primary School, the excellent primary school that the Member mentioned, is desirous to do that. I would encourage it to apply for the rural community pollinator scheme. We are making £1·51 million available to up to 183 applicants. It would be good if that school were one of them. The Member raised a political issue that needs to be resolved between the UK Government, which introduced the protocol, and the European Union in a way that protects the European Union's single market and the single market between Northern Ireland and Great Britain. Both are obtainable, and the European Union, in particular, needs to recognise the problems that it is causing and the reality that it will achieve what nobody else has been capable of achieving: the grinding to a halt of the political aspect of the peace process in Northern Ireland. That will be on the hands of the European Union if it chooses to dig in its heels and not cooperate.