§ Valerie DaveyTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what proposals he plans to make at the forthcoming international meeting to consider the conservation of albatrosses and petrels. [146977]
§ Mr. MullinThere are currently severe threats to albatrosses and petrels in the southern hemisphere, and the need to counter them was highlighted in August by 461W the launch of BirdLife International's "Save the Albatross Campaign". The UK is one of the three principal range states for these species, and takes its responsibilities very seriously. We played a very prominent role in the international meeting held in Hobart last July, which resulted in an advanced draft of a new Agreement on conservation action under the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals.
South Africa will, with financial assistance from my Department, host a further meeting on the proposed Agreement at the end of January, and I hope that this will be able to resolve most outstanding points. The most important of these will be in relation to by-catch regulation, where we shall seek results that build effectively on FAO and CCAMLR initiatives, but are not so onerous as to discourage wide support of the Agreement. We shall also seek to promote the precautionary principle, and to secure effective dispute settlement procedures, a right of accession to the Agreement by the European Union, and fair and satisfactory arrangements for funding the Agreement's work.