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Fishing and Logging Policies

My Lords, I am sure the whole House wishes to thank the noble Baroness, Lady Whitaker, for bringing these two important subjects to our attention. I warmly congratulate her on the quality of her speech and the points she raised. All of us—not just in this House but in this country—need to be reminded why these two subjects are so important to us, and need to be educated on the subject. The BBC is performing a valuable service in that connection. This very evening there is a programme on a whale and another programme, the first of two by Sir David Attenborough, on climate change—very relevant to the subjects under discussion here today. Sir David is asking, in effect, ““What on earth are we doing to our planet?””. We should all ask that same question. As the noble Baroness has indicated, we are destroying thousands of acres of rainforest every year. As she said, I introduced a debate on this subject on 13 October last year. I will not go over that ground again, but this debate gives the Minister an opportunity to bring this House up to date on some of the issues that were then raised, several of which the noble Baroness has referred to. What, for example, after the plethora of committees, is actually happening on the ground? Has a single hectare of rainforest been saved? Have a single government taken active measures to control, if not eliminate, corruption in connection with logging operations? Are the indigenous people now being more involved in the discussion about what should happen to their own dwellings and habitat? What is happening to, for example, the great apes in Borneo and elsewhere? The orangutans are being destroyed almost to the point of elimination. Are their numbers being brought back to survival level? What is happening—this is perhaps the most important of all—to the much vaunted review by the World Bank of its rainforest logging policies? Has that review ever been completed? Have its policies been changed as a result of the evidence of the damage, notably in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which it actively encouraged? There is a lot to answer for in respect of rainforests. Most importantly, the noble Baroness talked about fishing. Here, again, the debate is extremely timely for next week in New York there is to be a meeting on the United Nations fish stocks agreement, which is concerned with the management of fish stocks on the high seas. That is the responsibility of regional fishing management organisations. Frankly, the way that responsibility is being discharged is an absolute disgrace. A report has recently been published by WWF which emphasises that fisheries are not being managed in a sustainable way. How could they be when governments connive in the vast over-capacity of authorised fleets; when the over-fishing of stocks is tolerated; and when there are virtually no rebuilding strategies, no safeguards, no precautions, and apparently no concern by those who are doing the fishing? They are indifferent to the consequences of what they are doing and the methods that they are using, which are horrendous. Vast fishing nets, some 60 metres wide, go down to depths of 1,000 metres or more and scoop up anything in the way without discrimination. They are ripping up 100 year-old corals and sponges. Fishermen use long-line fishing in the open ocean, fishing for tuna and marlin with lines up to 10 kilometres long with baited hooks. We can imagine what happens with several thousand long-line boats in operation throughout the globe, with 3.8 million hooks set globally each night. No wonder loggerhead turtles, which are on the red list of endangered species, are being killed at a rate of about 200,000 every year. The albatross, another endangered creature, is being destroyed at the rate of more than 100,000 every year. It is now known that there are places in the ocean—rather like watering holes in the Serengeti, where lions, leopards, gazelles, wildebeest and other species congregate at a relatively small spot—which are rich in tuna, swordfish, shark and billfish. Fishermen also know that and that is why they go there. Up to 100 million sharks are caught annually, mostly by accident. Thirty million metric tonnes of fish are thrown over the side of fishing boats every year, damaged, dying or dead. That is truly horrifying, wanton and mindless slaughter. Mr Simon Cripps, director of WWF’s global marine programme, said, very moderately,"““It’s got to stop, we’ve got to do it quickly””." Rather surprisingly, in my view, he goes on to say that there is hope provided we can get management in place. But I add that attitudes have to change dramatically. It has been suggested by Dr Callum Roberts of York University that marine parks or reserves should be established which would be entirely off limits to fishing. If the industrial scale of exploitation goes on, whole fish populations will be destroyed. Fishermen, I learn, are also now using military sonar to hunt in the deep ocean. What is the Government’s attitude to that? Sonar causes dreadful disorientation to whales and other cetaceans, and probably the most horrific pain as well. Talking of whales, today sees the start of the 58th annual meeting of the International Whaling Commission. There is a moratorium on whale fishing, yet 1,400 whales will die this year. The Japanese are now targeting fin whales and Baird’s beaked whales. They claim that that is done in the name of scientific research. Frankly, that is a load of bunkum. We know perfectly well that they have an education programme to persuade more people to eat whales. They are also using whales for dog meat. I hope that the Government will ensure that the moratorium on whale hunting will continue to be observed; that it will be more effectively policed and that harsh penalties will be imposed on those who contravene it.