§ Mr. GardinerTo ask the Secretary of State for International Development (1) if he will assist the governments of(a) Ghana and (b) Cameroon in implementing the indicative actions of the African Forest Law Enforcement and Governance ministerial declaration with respect to (i) wildlife and (ii) bushmeat; [164669]
(2) what new funding has been released to improve wildlife management since the publication of the Department's Wildlife and Poverty Study; [164670]
(3) what resources have been allocated to ensure that wildlife and bushmeat issues are incorporated into poverty assessments since the publication of the Department's Wildlife and Poverty Study. [164671]
§ Hilary BennThe Department for International Development (DFID) is committed to working with the governments of Ghana and Cameroon to strengthen their capacity to deal with wildlife and poverty issues. We do this by supporting sector reform. It is for the governments concerned to prioritise actions within their sector reform programmes. Whether or not these governments choose to prioritise the "indicative actions" included in the Africa Forest Law Enforcement and Governance (AFLEG) Declaration, DFID's support will be to the programme as a whole and not to any particular elements of it.
The DFID Wildlife and Poverty Study estimated that 150 million very poor people are significantly dependent on wildlife for their food and livelihoods, and that bushmeat is one important part of this. The study drew out implications for donors, governments, the private sector and civil society, but did not make any explicit recommendations to DFID. No new funding has been released specifically to improve wildlife management since its publication. We have however disseminated the findings of the study widely.
DFID has a two-pronged strategy for ensuring that biodiversity is integrated into development policy and practice by:
supporting partner governments to identify links between biodiversity and poverty and integrate environmental matters, including biodiversity, into their national policy frameworks for poverty reduction (DFID includes biodiversity in its screening processes for bilateral programmes).promoting the adoption of strategic environmental assessments in the multilateral agencies DFID supports, the EC, the UN, the development banks and others.