§ Mr. Freesonasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what consideration has been given towards the creation of a special tropical forest fund to which the timber industry, development aid agencies and Governments in the north would contribute, to be used for large-scale regeneration projects in degraded tropical forests for creating forest areas of biological importance so as to conserve their genetic resources.
§ Mr. Chris PattenGovernments and the international tropical timber industry subscribe to the international tropical timber agreement, which embraces both producing and consuming nations. It aims to promote policies for the sustainable utilisation and conservation of tropical forests. Concessional aid finance for this purpose is already available through resources co-ordinated under the Food and Agriculture Organisation's tropical forestry action plan.