A return to better stories — National Infrastructure Commission for Wales appoints its Nature Guardian

Blodeuwedd. Image credit: Whistles In The Wind

In October 2024, the National Infrastructure Commission for Wales (NICW) published a report on Building Resilience to Flooding in Wales by 2050. In a small country — with thirty three rivers, a 1680 mile coastline and more than its fair share of rainfall — it’s an issue keenly felt.

The report makes 17 recommendations on mitigating flood risk, and one of those is granting Nature a voice in decisions going forward — for which Faith In Nature’s ‘Nature on the Board’ (NOTB) framework was used as a case study. The report was first presented in Pontypridd — a town that has suffered severe and repeated flooding in recent years. Pontypridd is also where I went to school. So it’s hard to describe just how synchronicitous that day felt.

By now, it’s a feeling I’m becoming increasingly familiar with. But that doesn’t make it any less incredible. A few years ago, the Earth moved for me when I learned of rivers far away being recognised as legal persons. Inspired by those stories, we created Nature on the Board to simulate something similar with business. Within a few short years, rivers close to my home were implementing these same frameworks and, barely a year after that, reports to Welsh government were recommending that similar moves be considered at a national level.

Already, the story’s moved on. Earlier this year, I consulted for NICW on how they might implement something like NOTB within their commission. That they have since gone on to actually appoint a Nature Guardian within their commission is… *huge*. Who knows whether the Rights of Nature will ever be recognised at national level in the UK, but NICW has shown it’s possible for public bodies to do what they can, regardless of what happens at higher levels.

As Dr David Clubb, Chair of NICW, says:

Having called on the Welsh Government to give nature a true voice in decisions around flood resilience, we recognise the importance of holding ourselves to the same standard. Now we are turning our insight inward, committing to deepen our own understanding of how to listen to, and meaningfully act upon, nature’s voice within our work.

This for me perfectly encapsulates the spirit of NOTB. It’s an example of what we can do with whatever influence we have. Boards are just collections of people. As are volunteer groups, bands, sports teams, arts councils, civic councils, and on, and on. Any group of people can voluntarily choose to recognise the Rights of Nature if they so choose. And in doing so, start to have different conversations, that might lead to a different understanding or different decisions. If this line of thinking resonates with you, then you are far from powerless. That the government isn’t making the decisions you would, doesn’t mean you can’t within your own immediate sphere. As soon as you start acting as if Nature has rights, it does.

During the consultation period, NICW raised the question of cultural relevance for Wales. It was another reminder of the importance of the stories we tell ourselves. We have become accustomed to the story that Nature is nothing but a resource, let alone a true stakeholder. But a much older story exists — one that better served our ancestors and the natural world of which they recognised themselves as part. In that story, Nature was revered, powerful and animate. Through the ‘Mabinogion’ — Welsh folk tales that date to the 11th century (and maybe much earlier still) — the land has remained animate. That same land is the backdrop of daily life in Wales, overlaid with those same tales that are still proudly celebrated today. The land lives.

In that sense, Wales is primed for ideas such as this. They tie politics, law and environmental protection together with culture — which is otherwise often used as a reason not to change the stories (even when those stories are dysfunctional, traumatic and so clearly wrong).

And the truth, of course, is that an animate land does not stop being animate at the border with England, or the wider world. It is simply that our more Nature-centric stories have survived better. That might have something to do with Wales being a wilder, less hospitable land that was not so easy to conquer. In which case, the land itself might have been its own best defence against losing the stories that keep it alive.

(If any of this is true, the synchronicity I feel so acutely is but a blip in a much longer, more elaborate storyline that I can only glimpse.)

Regardless, that NICW has taken this step is to be celebrated and I would like to thank everyone involved for being so brave and so open in their willingness to be radical — not just for story’s sake, but for the health and wellbeing of all stakeholders.

If NICW, together with Elspeth Jones as their new Nature Guardian, can prove this to be a success, then hopefully it will pave the way for other public bodies to quickly follow suit. Hopefully the Senedd here in Wales is watching. Hopefully so too is the rest of the world.