A MAJOR report has called for a new push for economic development in Wales’ protected areas - including the Brecon Beacons National Park.

The report, commissioned by the Welsh Government, has made 69 recommendations, including a better understanding by Welsh park authorities of their local and regional economies, especially tourism.

The Welsh Government should also help landscape areas become centres for innovation and catalysts of rural development "within their environmental limits" and ministers should ensure national parks, and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONBs), contribute to tourism and green energy growth.

Efforts to harness hydro-electric power in the Brecon Beacons are cited as a good example of projects already working, in the report by chaired by Cardiff University planning boffin Professor Terry Marsden.

His report warns rural areas have long lost out in areas like health services, schools shops and now broadband and says the current focus on city regions could drain more investment from rural areas.

Ministers, says the report, should provide the infrastructure for voluntary and private partnerships to bring forward economic and environmental developments including green energy projects as well as rural enterprises and affordable housing.

Welsh minister for natural resources, Carl Sargent is appointing Lord Dafydd Elis-Thomas to to chair a future landscapes working group to bring together national parks, AONB interest groups and councils. It will report after the May 2016 Welsh election.

The Brecon Beacons is one of three national parks in Wales, the others are Snowdonia and the Pembrokeshire Coast, and 80,000 people live in the national parks which account for 25% of the landmass of Wales. There are five AONBs in Wales.