§ Mr. BattleTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement on the International Tropical Timber Organisation's timber projects in(a) Tefe's national forest, (b) Rio Preto's national forest and (c) Ibirama national forest in the light of policy towards commercial logging in tropical rain forests.
§ Mrs. ChalkerThese Brazilian projects have three common objectives: (i) to help counter unsustainable exploitation of the forests in question while affording protection to fauna and water and soil resources, (ii) to expand markets for non-wood products both nationally and internationally, and (iii) to develop management models for the sustainable production of wood and other forest products.
At the last meeting of ITTO in Japan in November 1990, while not objecting to the projects in principle, the United Kingdom opposed them in the forest management committee proceedings on the grounds that they were not appropriate for ITTO funding. The United Kingdom argued that as the three projects involved the development of natural resources, it would be more appropriate to pursue these under Brazil's national plan, under which the Government of Brazil now provide stringent environmental safeguards.
In spite of these arguments, the consensus in ITTO's council was that the three projects justified ITTO funding and they were duly approved.