A group is calling on the new Welsh government to pledge protection for the Cambrian Mountains.

The Cambrian Mountain Society (CMS) is calling on the 2026 Senedd candidates to pledge to support local communities and provide a better long-term future for the area.

Three years after a petition gained over 21,000 signatures to designate the mountains an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB), the society is calling the new government to “move towards giving that much-needed protection”.

Lorna Brazell, CMS secretary, said: “Despite its extraordinary beauty, mid-Wales is the only region in Wales without any protection whatsoever for any of its iconic landscapes.

“We need the Welsh government to ensure this important resource is properly safeguarded to provide health and well-being for nature and for future generations to enjoy."

The society has raised concerns over the number of wind farm applications for the area, describing it as threatening to create “an industrial landscape”, depleting biodiversity, impacting the tourist industry and “risking the natural heritage of the area”.

The society calls on the new government to recognise the boost local communities would receive from the AONB designation and direct Natural Resources Wales to pursue the matter.

They call on the government to recognise the potential the Cambrian Mountains has for impacting young people and to put more resources into enforcing the laws that already exist to prevent damage such as river pollution and rural crime.

Sue Jones-Davies, former Aberystwyth Mayor, said: “I fully endorse the call for natural habitats that are more numerous, bigger - crucially, joined up.

“That phrase sums up for me what the whole approach of the government to our landscape should be, ‘joined up’, each section working together and not in isolation as so often happens.

“The way forward has to be holistic.

“That is how nature works and how communities work.”