§ Mr. GardinerTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what briefings his Department's environmental attaches in countries in Central and West Africa have received on the bush meat trade. [70311]
§ Mr. MacShaneThe Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) and the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) has kept posts responsible for the six African states that are members of the CITES Bushmeat Working Group informed about its progress. Posts were asked to emphasise the group's importance to their host government. In February FCO sent a telegram to around 80 posts (including in West and Central Africa) highlighting the major issues, such as bush meat, of the forthcoming CITES Conference of the Parties. Many posts took this opportunity to discover the extent to which bush meat trade was a problem in their host country.
The FCO briefed posts in all 23 African and Asian great ape range states, and also in potential donor states, about the UK's financial support of £175,000 to UNEP's Great Ape Survival Project (GrASP). The FCO contributed £75,000 to the UK's donation and I plan to make an
388Wannouncement of further funding soon. Posts were also informed about GrASP's aims and asked to provide logistical and political support to the GrASP technical team which is led by Ian Redmond and the UK NGO Born Free. Posts that have provided support so far include those in Kinshasa, Yaounde, Abidjan, Kuala Lumpa, Kigali, Kampala, Dakar, and Jakarta. UNEP Executive-Director Klaus Topfer has paid tribute to the support that UK Missions overseas have given, saying that
the personal commitment they have shown is very encouraging for our GrASP team.DEFRA and the FCO have used UK diplomatic missions in Harare, Accra, Cairo, Pretoria, Kampala, Abidjan, Maseru, Dakar, Luanda, Nairobi, Kigali, Mbabane and Tunis to raise the profile of UK import restrictions and rules on meat and animal products.