§ Mr. GaleTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment (1) what is Her Majesty's Government's current position towards a resumption of the inter-nation trade in elephant products;
(2) what steps Her Majesty's Government propose to take to encourage South Africa to withdraw its proposals to downlist the African elephant;
(3) if Her Majesty's Government intend to support the appendix 1 listing all African elephant populations at the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Specicies meeting to be held in November;
(4) what is the current position of Her Majesty's Government towards any resumption of the trade in ivory.
§ Mr. AtkinsAt the last meeting of the conference of the parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of wild fauna and flora—CITES—in Kyoto in March 1992, the Government opposed proposals on the part of some southern African countries to resume trade in ivory and to downlist some African elephant populations from appendix I to appendix II.
As for the forthcoming meeting of the conference of the parties to be held in Fort Lauderdale in November, the Government have not yet reached any conclusions on the proposals tabled by South Africa and the Sudan. Before doing so, we wish to consider the report of the panel of experts, established by CITES, and to take account of reactions of other African elephant range states. The Government's overall position is that we would not support any change in the status of the African elephant under CITES, unless we were satisfied that this would not put at risk elephant populations in the country concerned or any other country.
§ Mr. GaleTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will list the countries that have been 317W invited, and will be invited, to participate in the forthcoming meeting organised by the United Kingdom and designed to develop greater understanding between the range states, potential consumer states and other interested parties on the African elephant issue in the context of CITES.
§ Mr. AtkinsAt the last meeting of the conference of the parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of wild fauna and flora—CITES—in Kyoto in March 1992, the then President of the EC Environment Council urged that there should be more intersessional dialogue between parties on controversial issues including that of the elephant and the rhino. Since then, the European Union has been exploring the possibility of such a dialogue between the main countries concerned with the status of the African elephant. After widespread consultation among African and other Governments, including an exploratory mission, the EU has concluded that there is an opportunity for such dialogue.
The meeting is being arranged in Botswana in September this year, and a list of those invited follows:
Africa Botswana Namibia Burkina Faso Nigeria Cameroun South Africa Central African Republic Sudan Congo Tanzania Ethiopia Togo Gabon Uganda Ghana Zaire Kenya Zambia Malawi Zimbabwe Mali Rest of world France Germany Japan United Kingdom United States of America European Commission In addition, representatives of CITES, the United
Revised LCPD national plan NO1 limits for England and Wales (in kilotonnes) 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 National Power 418 401 386 369 354 340 (402) (387) (371) (356) Powergen 256 247 236 227 217 209 (237) (228) (218) England and Wales Sub-total 674 648 622 596 571 549 (649) (624) (599) (574) Refineries 25 25 25 25 25 21 (24) (23) (22) (22) 1 The figures in the National Plan prior to the changes are shown in parentheses where any change has been made.