§ Mr. WatsonTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what assessment she has made of the impact of the globalised beef market on deforestation in the Amazon basin. [166834]
§ Mr. MorleyThe international beef export market is expanding and Brazilian production is rising to meet demand. The vast majority of Brazil's export trade is currently with countries outside the European Community.
We have not undertaken our own assessment of the impact of the globalised beef market on deforestation in the Amazon Basin, but we are aware of work undertaken and published on 2 April 2004 by CIFOR (Centre for International Forestry Research), which suggests that Brazil's beef production contribute to the destruction of the Amazon rainforest.
The Government takes sustainable forest management seriously and is playing a leading role in international negotiations on forests in a number of fora, including the Convention on Biological Diversity, the United Nations Forum on Forests (UNFF), Forest Law Enforcement and Governance processes and the G8.
672WThe Government is committed to tackling illegal logging. Under EU law, a ban on the import of illegally logged timber can be imposed only at EU level. We are therefore showing leadership within the European Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) process. The FLEGT action plan includes the proposal to negotiate voluntary partnership agreements with timber producing countries. These agreements would be underpinned by a new EU import Regulation that would deny access to EU markets for illegally harvested timber from those countries.