§ Mr. WrayTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what action the564W Government have taken since 1997 to prevent the killing of highly endangered species for bushmeat. [53652]
§ Mr. MeacherMost endangered species are protected by national law in all the countries they inhabit; they are also protected internationally under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). While this Government cannot intervene directly in the protection of wildlife abroad we can and do make every effort to help other countries develop and implement their own wildlife protection measures and those required under CITES.
For instance, since 1997, concern about the increasingly unsustainable nature of the bushmeat trade and its effects on endangered species led to my Department raising the issue within CITES, which resulted in the establishment of a bushmeat working group to help central and west African range states develop and implement their own solutions. We have contributed £55,000 to the working group to help the range states participate and to support the recruitment of consultants to revise and harmonise their own wildlife policies and legislation. UK work also takes place through the Convention on Biological Diversity, particularly through the forestry work programme recently adopted by parties.
We have also funded research. The results of one project, analysing existing knowledge and expertise on the bushmeat trade, highlighting gaps in data and understanding, and making recommendations on further action, have now been published and we hope that they will be of particular benefit to the CITES bushmeat working group. We have also provided £248,000, through the Darwin Initiative, to the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust and Wildlife Conservation Research Unit to provide a model of the bushmeat problem in general and develop an integrated solution to the over-exploitation of wildlife in lowland forest areas in Africa.
Endangered species particularly at risk from the bushmeat trade include gorillas, chimpanzees and bonobos (pygmy chimpanzees), and unsustainable trade in bushmeat will be one of the issues addressed by the United Nations Environment Programme's new Great Ape Survival Programme (GrASP). My Department and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office have contributed £175,000 to GrASP, some 10 per cent. of the total amount sought by UNEP. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office plans to make a further donation and our embassies and high commissions overseas have been providing logistical and political support to GrASP.
The Department for International Development (DfID), while primarily concerned with helping to eradicate world poverty, also recognises the need to address concerns about the pressures on endangered species of the bushmeat trade. DfID's concern about bushmeat is focused on the impact of the hunting, selling and consumption of bushmeat on the food security and livelihoods of poor people. For instance, DfID has supported the implementation of forestry laws in Cameroon giving communities the rights to manage their forest and wildlife resources. DfID feels the best way to encourage a sustainable bushmeat trade in Cameroon is to include it as part of a package of reforms strengthening the governance of natural resource management generally.