“Infrastructure developments need to work in harmony with nature, so the idea of giving nature a voice on the board of such an important advisory body is inspiring.”
Karen Whitfield, Director of Wales Environment Link
Boards Wales takeaways:
- The ‘Nature on Board’ is growing, along with evidence of its power to affect change
- The National Infrastructure Commission for Wales is making a powerful case for Boards to incorporate Nature
What’s new?
On April 30th, 2025, the National Infrastructure Commission for Wales (NICW) published a blog, two essays, and a short film exploring an idea that may quietly reshape public decision-making: bringing Nature into the heart of governance.
As Chair of NICW, I want to share why this matters — not just to us, but to the wider community of organisations working for a more resilient, equitable, and ecologically grounded future.
NICW’s engagement with this concept stems from our recent recommendations to Welsh Government on how to build resilience to flooding by 2050. Among these was a proposal that may seem radical but is, in truth, deeply grounded in evidence and in Wales’ cultural history:
“Set up the necessary mechanisms to incorporate nature as a key stakeholder by 2028, giving nature a voice around the table and considering opportunities to enshrine natural assets in law, or updating the Environment Act 2015, to give rights to natural assets in decision-making.”
Building Resilience to Flooding in Wales by 2050, Recommendation 3
This isn’t just about changing policy, it’s about evolving how we make decisions.
How does it work?
That’s a fair question — and one we’re still learning to answer in real time.
Some of the functional aspects are addressed in the guidance available through the Nature on the Board information portal. One of the two research commissions we initiated focused specifically on the ‘nuts and bolts’; helping us and others understand what this looks like in practice.
But here’s the deeper truth: every organisation will experience this differently.
For NICW, this isn’t just a technical shift. It’s a governance experiment, a learning journey. It’s an opportunity to ask bigger questions, embrace uncertainty, and potentially take a transformative leap in how decisions are shaped. We are not adding a tickbox for Nature. We are inviting a new kind of presence into the room.
What are the benefits?
We know Wales is one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world. Despite progressive legislation, including the Well-being of Future Generations Act and the Environment Act, biodiversity continues to decline. These frameworks, while well-intended, have yet to catalyse the systemic change we need.
Although all public bodies have a statutory duty to protect nature and enhance diversity, nearly half are not yet fulfilling these obligations. This reveals a wider misalignment — between our legal commitments and the lived reality of decision-making.
Reversing biodiversity loss demands more than aspiration. It requires a transformation in how decisions are made. The Senedd’s 2021 declaration of a Nature Emergency is a necessary step, but unless we redesign our governance systems, we risk deepening the crisis we’re trying to solve.
At first glance, introducing a Nature Guardian, an external voice or presence representing the natural world, might seem like a complication. But in practice, it often brings clarity. A Nature Guardian can help quickly affirm or eliminate options, ground decisions in long-term ecological reality, or simply hold the space. Sometimes, their presence alone shifts the dynamic: a quiet reminder that we are not governing in isolation from the living systems that sustain us.
What is the wider relevance to Wales?
The Nature Guardian model is deeply aligned with the Future Generations approach. Both aim to integrate long-term thinking, systems awareness, and ecological accountability into governance. But so far, in Wales, this has only been tested in specific contexts, such as the Usk Catchment, where organisations are already ecologically focused.
The NICW initiative is different. We’re not a conservation body. We exist to guide infrastructure policy, yet here we are, exploring how to give Nature a voice within our own processes. If we can do this meaningfully, it signals something powerful: that any public body can begin to shift how governance is done. Not just by talking about nature, but by structurally including it.
And that opens the door for transformation across public, private, and third sectors alike.
What’s next?
NICW will publish a full account of our experiences and lessons later this year. But this feels too important to keep quiet about until then. We believe others in Wales may already be asking similar questions, or be ready to start.
If this concept resonates with you or your organisation, we invite you to explore it further. Get in touch. Ask the difficult questions. Try something new. And above all, share your learning.
Governance is a shared endeavour. And when we lift each other, we all rise.
This blog post is the personal opinion of David Clubb. Locally based, open source AI was used to help draft this post.