HC Deb 15 October 1990 vol 177 cc921-2
58. Mr. Wallace

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he has any plans to review the operation of the tropical forestry action plan; and if he will make a statement.

The Minister for Overseas Development (Mrs. Lynda Chalker)

We have endorsed the strengthening and reform of the tropical forestry action plan—the TFAP—called for by the independent review of the plan commissioned by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation—the FAO. We are working to see reform implemented; a good start was made at the FAO's committee on forestry last month.

Mr. Wallace

The plan has perhaps been a disappointment, although we recognise that it was set up in good faith and with good objectives. The right hon. Lady has been quoted as saying that she will not let up pressure to change it; will she tell us in which direction she would like the change to move? Does she agree that the local pressures for the exploitation of the forests can be abated only if, at the same time, we tackle the fundamental problems of poverty, trade and aid?

Mrs. Chalker

The local problems of forestry are uppermost in our minds. We seek to tackle sustainable development and the whole question of the poverty of those people living in the forest. As part of the reform we have urged strongly—and I have got my EC colleagues to do likewise—that the forest people should be involved in the plans for forestry. The review called for a greater priority for the tropical forestry action plan within the FAO. The TFAP covers 81 countries, and is far more than the FAO. We have asked for revised guidelines for clearer aims and objectives. We also asked, as did the review, for better collaboration among the co-financing organisations—the World Bank, the FAO and the World Resources Institute. We have asked for increased and more timely resources to strengthen tropical forestry countries' own ability in planning policy expertise and implementation. We now await the meeting in November of officials of the FAO to see those reforms implemented in full.

Mr. Jacques Arnold

Are not there more ways than one of assisting the preservation of the tropical rain forest? Should not we be looking beyond merely this action plan to the bilateral work that Britain has been doing in assisting the Latin American countries in the Amazon basin in preserving their rain forests? Will my right hon. Friend commend the project that is now going ahead in Brazil?

Mrs. Chalker

I most certainly commend that project, and I hope to visit Brazil at the end of this month. Britain now has some 200 projects under way or in preparation at a cost to the aid programme of £160 million—56 of those are through non-governmental organisations concerned with the environment, and 40 are research programmes. There are many ways in which we can help the environment further and my hon. Friend will find them in "Environment and British aid programme" and chapter 4 of "This Common Inheritance".

Mr. Dalyell

What is the time scale for the reform, particularly as the position is extremely urgent—as the Minister knows—for Sarawak and Sabah and the rest of the islands of Borneo?

Mrs. Chalker

I hope that the reforms will be in place by early next year. As the hon. Gentleman knows, there is some concern—that I share—that the FAO has been resistant to the types of changes that are wanted by all the donor countries. Given that there was such unanimity in the committee on forestry which met in September in Rome—I have put it on the EC development committee's agenda for the beginning of November—I have some hope that we will see fast implementation and then implementation in national forestry programmes, which is what the hon. Gentleman wants.