§ Ms. PrimaroloTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what representations he has made to the Government of the Cameroons on the need to prevent commercial logging companies logging in the Oban-Korup national park.
§ Mr. DalyellTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what representations he is making to the Governments of France and Germany about French and German timber companies logging in and near the Korup rain forest in Cameroon; and if he will make a statement on the consequences of such action for Her Majesty's Government's aid policy.
§ Mrs. ChalkerNo logging is permitted in Korup national park itself. The recent press reports have been about licences granted for logging in the buffer zone around Korup. Under Cameroonian law these licences should not have been granted without prior consultation with local government leaders and village chiefs in the interests of preserving economically important trees, water supplies and traditional hunting zones in the vicinity of each village. We share the concern of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) that recent logging activities may not have been subject to this condition and may be detrimental to the WWF's Korup project, which is being partly funded from the British aid programme.
The British embassy in Yaounde has already expressed its concern to the Cameroonian Ministry of Agriculture and the ambassador is being instructed to raise the matter formally at ministerial level. Meanwhile we are assured by the Cameroon authorities that existing licences for exploitation within the Korup buffer zone were issued before the establishment of the national park and that no new licences will be issued for exploitation within the zone.
We are now considering whether it would be desirable to make demarches to the Governments of countries whose logging companies are active in the vicinity of Korup, bearing it in mind that the powers of those Governments in respect of private companies may be strictly limited.