§ Mr. DafisTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what efforts have been made by his Department to encourage greater adherence to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species by other countries.
§ Mr. MacleanThe convention's secretariat bears the primary responsibility for ensuring that the requirements of the convention are met. Within the European Community, the European Commission is responsible for ensuring adherence to the EC regulation which implements the convention. We draw evidence of any apparent problems to the attention of the country concerned and either the secretariat or commission as appropriate. We introduce any trade restrictions which the secretariat recommends to encourage compliance.
We are also very active in promoting improvements in the quality of implementation. We asked the European Commission last October to propose substantially stricter controls within the Community and this they have done. Further, with our EC partners, we have taken 1,400 decisions since 1984 to suspend trade in particular species from particular countries because we were not satisfied with their assessments of its impact. At the conference of the parties to the convention in March, we pressed successfully for similar action to be taken world wide. Further, we played a leading part at the conference in 398W introducing measures to ensure compliance with the convention's transport requirement by providing for suspensions of trade in birds suffering high mortality in transit.
§ Mr. DafisTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will make it his policy to encourage the special protection of endangered species travelling on migration routes which are not included in officially designated protected areas.
§ Mr. MacleanThe Government already support the protection of endangered migratory species, both nationally and internationally. The Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 gives strict protection to endangered migratory birds and mammals in Great Britain. The United Kingdom has participated actively since 1985 as a party to the international convention on the conservation of migratory species of wild animals, known as the Bonn convention. At present the United Kingdom holds the chairmanship of the standing committee of the convention.
In addition, the United Kingdom sponsored negotiations under the Bonn convention of an agreement on the conservation of bats in Europe. The agreement was concluded during the third conference of the parties to the convention in Geneva in September 1991. The United Kingdom signed the bats agreement when it was opened for signature in London on 4 December 1991 and my Department is providing its secretariat.
The United Kingdom delegation played a leading role in the conclusion at the same conference of an agreement on the conservation of small cetaceans of the Baltic and North seas. The agreement was signed by the United Kingdom on 16 April this year and my Department is financing its interim secretariat, based at the sea mammals research unit in Cambridge.
The EC birds directive makes specific provision for the protection of migratory birds and their feeding grounds and the Government are implementing this by the designation of special protection areas (SPAs), now 52 in number, and through the indentification of potential SPAs, both of which receive protection under the planning system.