§ Mr. DalyellTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement on the steps being taken to emphasise the case for training overseas students in(a) rain forest and (b) other tropical forest-related disciplines in (i) the United Kingdom and (ii) recipient countries.
§ Mrs. ChalkerThe United Kingdom has a substantial programme of forestry training for overseas study fellows at postgraduate and more practical levels. This has been increasing since the launch of the forestry initiative in November 1989. In 1990–91—the last financial year for which there are complete figures—United Kingdom training awards fell into the following categories; Rain forests are not a separate discipline.
Number Forestry General 91 Silviculture 4 Tropical Forest Ecology 1 Tropical Forest Pathology 1 Tropical Tree Breeding 1 Environmental Forestry 31 Environmental Forestry Policy 2 Forest Management 22 Forestry Mensuration 1 Forest Planning 4 Forest Economics 3 Forest Engineering 1 Forest Harvesting 2 Agro Forestry 12 Social Forestry 32 Total 208 Where appropriate, the United Kingdom also assists with forestry training in developing countries. For example the ODA is providing technical assistance to strengthen local training institutions in Indonesia and Sri Lanka.
§ Mr. DalyellTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what action has been taken as a result of the Food and Agriculture Organisation report, chaired by Ambassador Ullsten, and recommendations relating to legal instruments placing obligations on both tropical and northern industrial countries contributing to the conservation of tropical forest.
§ Mrs. ChalkerProgress with the reform of the tropical forest action plan—TFAP—has been slow. Since the Ullsten report there was an expert group meeting in Geneva in March and a further 'contact group' meeting in Paris last month, which agreed the functions of a proposed consultative group to oversee the operations of the TFAP. A report of this meeting will be considered at the FAO council in November.
The third UNCED preparatory committee meeting in Geneva last month made progress in producing a draft statement of principles on the management of the world's forests. This should be ready in time to be endorsed by world leaders in Rio de Janeiro in June 1992. We hope that at Rio there will be a commitment to work towards a legal convention thereafter.
The draft statement of principles states that there must be an adequate mechanism for making financial and technical assistance available to help developing countries implement policies and programmes aimed at the 5W conservation and sustainable development of forests. This is the purpose of TFAP, so the United Kingdom will therefore continue to press for reforms that make the TFAP an effective and transparent mechanism.
§ Mr. DalyellTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what consultations he had with the non-governmental organisation community about advice that will be given by Edinburgh centre for tropical forests.
§ Mrs. ChalkerThe Edinburgh centre for tropical forests is one of a variety of sources of advice which the Overseas Development Administration uses in appraising develop-ment projects submitted by non-governmental organisa-tions. It is not ODA's practice, when selecting advisers, to consult potential recipients of funds and it would not have been practical to do so in this case.