Hello everybody, I was very much looking forward to joining the Vet Green Forum in person this year, but unfortunately, I find the diary taking me to a different part of the country. And so unfortunately, I'm only going to appear this time via this short video message. But I did just want to pop in and say hello and to wish you all the very best.

For your meeting, because we are at a critical moment in our journey to conserve life on this planet, not least in the wake of the new global biodiversity framework that was agreed in Montreal at the end of last year. And which is now shaping policy and practise across the world, including here in the United Kingdom, where various plans are coming forward, including England's new environmental improvement plan, which are starting to give some sense of momentum to what was agreed at the global level, but bringing it back home to the national level. Of course, some of the things that we know that we need to do are very, very big indeed in halting and then reversing the historic decline of biodiversity of ecosystems of, of wildlife, which is basically what that new accord says that we need to do, and we know very well why we need to do this.

Not only are we using the losing the beauty and wonder of nature, but also our own life support system. Because nature is of course vital for food security, for public health and wellbeing, for climate change resilience and indeed for the underpinning of our entire economic system. Governments, of course, are not gonna be able to do this on their own.

All sectors, all professions are going to have to be involved, whether we're engaged as private citizens or through our professional bodies and our professions that we discharge day to day, from accountancy to law, from farming to the veterinary, profession too, because vets have a pivotal role to play in all of this. For example, the extent to which you understand disease and are able To advise and manage on the steps needed to avoid the worst impacts of, for example, avian influenza, which is causing terrible problems across the United Kingdom at the moment, with many populations of sea birds in particular, being very hard hit by this awful disease. What are we gonna do about that?

What steps are needed? What is the interface between wild birds and domestic and released birds? We need to know more about all of that and to be able to manage all of that.

Other diseases that we're managing in agriculture include bovine tuberculosis, another terribly difficult challenge, but vets being very important and being able to help navigate all of that. And then there are the medicines that we use to keep our companion animals healthy, flea treatments, for example, known to be causing some issues in rivers, damaging insect populations, which in turn are important for fish and bird populations. And then of course the ivermectins used in very many farm animals to protect them from endoparasites, causing problems in the wider environment when that material gets excreted via dung, causing damage to dung degrading populations of different kinds of insects, again, with really quite profound ecological effects following that.

So these kinds of areas too, presenting very exciting opportunities to do things better. Through the veterinary profession, finding different ways of, of dealing with these, with these problems, and then there is the effect of our companion animals on nature, our cats and dogs can cause disturbance and and damage to, to wildlife populations. What can we do to help people understand that and do better in looking after their pets in a good way without causing those kinds of, of damage.

And then what is perhaps the, the kind of, you know, the really profound opportunity that that comes with the vet world in terms of being able to encourage different outcomes in the future. And that is, you know, the the the relationship between us and other living things. A phenomenon known as biophilia, I think is a really interesting.

Concept when we look at the challenges that we face and how if we are going to navigate these terrible conflicts between people's needs and the health of the environment, we're gonna have to foster much more empathy with it, and perhaps the quickest way we can do that is via our Companion animals and to be fostering an appreciation of other living things through the creatures that we spend much of our time with and that relationship being as positive as possible is something, of course, which can be helped by vets, and I know that many vets spend a lot of time thinking about those kinds of things. So the opportunities are huge, the challenges are considerable, but working together, I do think that we can make the difference needed to meet that global biodiversity framework's set of goals by 2030. But we're gonna have to get really cracking and really stuck into doing this because.

We've had these kinds of frameworks in the past and frankly we didn't meet them, so this is gonna need a step change up. And Natural England, all of our teams are looking forward to working with people right across society, including people in the veterinary world to be able to to do the best we can. Now, sadly, I can't be with you, but I'm delighted that Helen Donald, er, our principal specialist on on animal health, is there with you, and she'll be sharing much more wisdom, and I hope you'll be able to have conversations with her in the margins as well as listen to what she has to say.

So good luck for an excellent meeting and and very much looking forward to hearing how it all goes. Thank you.