§ Mr. Matthew TaylorTo ask the Secretary of State for International Development if, at the Fourth Conference of the Parties of the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Government will encourage the Global Environment Facility's Implementing Agencies to integrate biodiversity into their mainstream operations and to report on this integration to the Fifth Conference. [31538]
§ Clare ShortThe UK believes that the implementing agencies of the Global Environment Facility (GEF) could do more to integrate biodiversity and other global environmental issues into their mainstream operations. We have supported calls to this end made at past Conferences of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity. The UK, in co-ordination with other donors, will continue to push for better integration at the Fourth Conference of the Parties. Decisions on how to take the issue forward subsequently will be a matter for the Conference of the Parties itself.
The UK will also continue to press for better integration of biodiversity by the GEF's implementing agencies at the governing Council of the GEF and in the respective governing bodies of the agencies concerned. Detailed decisions on how best to integrate biodiversity into mainstream operations rest with the agencies' governing bodies.