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Rainforests and Logging

My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Eden of Winton, for giving the House an opportunity to debate this very important issue. The noble Lord has great experience and expertise in these matters and I thank him for the recognition he has given of the work being carried out by the Government in this area—although, of course, I recognise his plea for us to do more. The noble Baroness, Lady Miller of Chilthorne Domer, summed up the matter when she said that this is an issue that has an environmental, economic and social impact. In his opening remarks, the noble Lord, Lord Eden of Winton, set out the context very clearly, particularly in regard to the human cost. More than half of the world’s rainforests have already been lost. About 40 per cent of all remaining rainforests—about 6 million square kilometres—are ecologically intact and relatively undisturbed by logging or other human activities. Most of these frontier forests are located in the Amazon and the Congo Basin, and more than a third of them are now facing a moderate to high threat of degradation due to logging. So the situation is serious, as every noble Lord has said. Another third of these frontier forests is threatened by agricultural expansion, mining and other human activities, especially in Asia. The noble Lord, Lord Dixon-Smith, referred to the expansion of agricultural land. The conversion of rainforest to agricultural land is often attributed to population pressure, the demand for land by small farmers and the growth in markets for cash crops. Resettlements, both planned and unplanned, have been a major force behind large-scale rainforest conversion. Logging has sometimes contributed to this phenomenon by opening up forests. An increasing share of agricultural conversion can be attributed to the production of exportable cash crops, such as oil palm and soya beans, and to cattle farming. So making forest product markets work more efficiently, establishing new markets for ecosystem services and increasing the share of benefits to the people who live in and around forests are the best ways to promote sound management and conservation of the rainforests. The noble Earl, Lord Peel, urged us to take a broader approach and, in particular, to look at the value of trade in products and services. At a global level, the demand for wood and wood products is increasing, especially in the faster growing Asian economies. Although that is the case, it is important that we look to ensure that this increase is carried out on a sustainable basis. Logging operations in tropical rainforests fall into three main categories. The first of these involves operations which are sustainable, where forests are well managed and harvested at sustainable levels. This can bring lasting economic benefits for governments through tax revenues, and benefits for communities through jobs and incomes. The second kind are those that are legal but not sustainable; where they operate within the rule of law but yield few direct benefits for local communities, especially for the forest-dependent poor. Thirdly, there are those logging operations that are both illegal and unsustainable. This kind of logging is all too common in rainforests. It is the most destructive—and poor local communities suffer the consequences most directly. Illegal logging loses governments billions of dollars in lost revenue and distorts markets and trade, undermining both legitimate business and responsible forest management. It promotes corruption, undermines the rule of law, and sometimes funds armed conflict. We have seen the way in which the proceeds of illegal logging have fuelled civil wars in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia and Cambodia. Logging can also have environmental consequences. The destruction and disturbance of habitats remains the biggest cause of biodiversity loss world wide. But it is important to stress that logging is not necessarily bad for people and the environment. There are examples of logging operations where local people have a greater say in what is being done and a fairer share of the benefits. Programmes which support community-driven approaches to forest management are yielding greater benefits for local people, creating jobs and incomes and generating revenue for governments. I agree wholeheartedly with the noble Lord, Lord Eden, that forests can play a part in poverty prevention. Conservation is also being driven by communities. It has been estimated that globally local people invest twice as much in conserving their forests as do governments. In fact, there are major shifts in forest ownership and conservation world wide. With increased decentralisation and a greater recognition of the rights of forest-dependent people, community-owned and administered forests in developing countries now total at least 22 per cent. The noble Earl, Lord Sandwich, is quite right. Indigenous people are sometimes denied their human and property rights or are dispossessed of their ancestral lands. The Government work in partnership with a number of countries and a range of organisations to protect the livelihood of forest-dependent poor people, including indigenous people. In Brazil, which the noble Earl mentioned, the Department for International Development has supported the indigenous peoples’ demonstration project to enhance the capacity of indigenous peoples’ organisations to protect their culture and their land. We have also funded a study on the impacts of improved forest governance and law enforcement on the livelihoods of the poor, including indigenous people. With respect to the noble Earl’s points about the eradication of forced labour and the importance of adhering to labour standards, I will, of course, raise these matters with my colleagues, as requested. But I can assure the noble Earl that our embassy in Brazil is monitoring developments closely and raises these and other human rights issues with the Brazilian Government on a regular basis. The noble Earl and the noble Lord, Lord Maginnis, raised the issue of certification. The Government are working with the Worldwide Fund for Nature to promote responsible forest management, including certification, through their support to the forest producers’ group in Brazil. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office is helping to develop an independent scheme for forest-friendly soya production. I will be quite happy to write to noble Lords and put a copy of that letter in the Library if that would be helpful. There is then the question of what we can do to promote legal and sustainable logging operations in the world’s rainforests. Making forest product markets work more efficiently, establishing new markets for ecosystem services and increasing the share of benefits to the people who live in and around forests are the best ways to promote sound management and the conservation of rainforests. Improving forest governance and addressing the policy and market failures that drive illegal and unsustainable logging of rainforests is a key part of this. Increased efforts to recognise the rights of local communities, encourage tenure reforms and develop better incentives for sustainable forest management are also needed. The Government are doing a considerable amount of work in that area; we have helped to put the subject on the international agenda and have also taken action in Europe as well as here in the United Kingdom. G8 environment and development Ministers agreed that action was needed by timber-producing and timber-consuming countries, and discussed what could be done to prevent illegally logged timber entering their markets. They agreed to do more to support developing countries’ own efforts to enforce forest law and improve governance. The fact that the United Kingdom Government need the support of other trading nations in combating illegal logging and the reality that we are part of a single market has also underlined the need for action at the European Union level. The noble Baroness, Lady Miller of Chilthorne Domer, is quite right in saying that we played a very active role in developing the EU Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade action plan. The plan proposes a range of actions to tackle illegal logging. Perhaps the most significant would be new legislation that would give custom authorities the power to deny entry to illegal timber from countries that have entered into partnership agreements with the European Union. We expect the legislation to go before the EU Agriculture Council for political agreement later this month. Discussions are under way between member states, the European Commission and potential partner countries, including Cameroon, Ghana, Gabon, Congo-Brazzaville, Malaysia and Indonesia. The United Kingdom is leading the process with Ghana—a country mentioned by the noble Lord, Lord Maginnis—which is keen to be one of the first countries to negotiate a partnership agreement. Other states are leading the discussions with other potential partner countries. I should tell the noble Lord, Lord Maginnis, that the Government provide support to forestry in developing countries through the Department for International Development, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. As for our financial support, the main support comes through our country programmes and averages £19 million per year. The noble Lord is quite right in saying that the amount of money going specifically to forests has fallen, but that must be considered against the fact that the amount of aid that we are giving has gone up. The difference is that we are now supporting the priorities that have been set by the developing countries themselves, so we have to persuade the developing countries to put more of the aid money that they are given into forest management. That links to a point made by the noble Lord, Lord Dixon-Smith, who talked about considering the aid that we are giving and putting some conditions in relation to it. All the evidence shows that you make greater progress if you support developing country priorities—because that, of course, is where those countries put their own resources. So it is a difficult balancing act that we are trying to perform; we are trying to help those countries develop in the areas where they feel that they can develop more quickly, and forestry management may not be at the top of their agenda. That is obviously something that we have to work with them to develop. I can also tell the House that we contribute substantial funds to international organisations that support forestry, such as the World Bank, the Food and Agricultural Organisation of the UN and the Global Environment Facility. I shall come back to the point about the World Bank that was raised by the noble Lord, Lord Eden of Winton. It is supporting the DRC Government in the adoption of a new forest code, which seeks to establish a framework for the sustainable management of the country’s forests. We are concerned that implementation of the code has been slow, and we are in discussion with the bank, the European Commission and others, to identify how donors can work together to support the implementation of the code on the ground. We support adherence to the moratorium on the allocation of new logging contracts in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. However, if the noble Lord has further evidence with respect to the work that the World Bank is doing in the DRC, I should be very happy to have it. Our information is that the World Bank is committed to determining whether specific country policies supported by bank lending programmes are likely to have significant poverty and social consequences. It would be helpful to know whether the commitments that the bank has made are not being met. Much of the Department for International Development’s current work is focused on helping to address the governance and market failures that drive illegal and unsustainable logging of forests. The noble Lord, Lord Maginnis, and the noble Baroness, Lady Miller, mentioned the importance of looking at governance. Our programmes aim to tackle weak forest governance and associated trade and corruption and to strengthen the role of civil society in holding their governments to account. The Department for International Development’s work also involves the development of market-based approaches to the provision of ecosystem services such as water, biodiversity and carbon—the values of which are rarely taken into account when decisions are made about logging. We work across government. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs supports international efforts for the conservation and sustainable use of forest biodiversity, in particular through the Darwin Initiative. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office and Defra are supporting conservation of the great apes. The noble Earl, Lord Peel, asked whether we should consider giving credits for reduced emissions from deforestation and extending emissions trading. I can confirm that we shall seek ways to expand the emissions trading scheme to forest projects as the noble Earl advocates.