§ 23. Mr. SawfordTo ask the Secretary of State for International Development what is her Department's policy on the use of development assistance for the preservation of the rain forests; and if she will make a statement. [42520]
§ Clare ShortMy Department's aim is the elimination of poverty through the promotion of sustainable development, which requires conservation of the environment. Our approach towards the conservation of rain forests and the problem of deforestation is to support work to improve management of forest resources in ways that lead to a range of benefits to poor communities as well as helping to secure the global environmental benefits that forests offer.
In the past year, DFID has also supported a number of important new initiatives, for example:
a grant of £3 million to the Guyana Sustainable Human Development Project, which will benefit forest-dependent communities encircling the Iwokrama Rain Forest.a grant of £2 million to the UNDP's Global Programme on Forests: Forest Management to Support Sustainable Livelihoods Project, which will promote public and private sector partnerships for sustainable forest management.a grant of £400,000 to the Forest Resource Accounting (FRA) 2000 project—FAO's global assessment of the status and condition of forest resources.DFID has played an active part in the development and implementation of the Action Programme on Forests endorsed by Heads of Government at the G8 Birmingham Summit and all other international forestry initiatives.
Details of my Department's forestry activities are set out in our publication: forests MATTER and our DFID Forestry Sector Projects, both of which are in the Libraries of the House and are available on request from DFID's Environment Policy Department.