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Fishing and Logging Policies

My Lords, I congratulate the noble Baroness, Lady Whitaker, on securing this debate. As the noble Lord, Lord Palmer, said, it has been a wide-ranging one with knowledgeable contributions from all sides of the House on issues that have serious worldwide ramifications in environmental, human rights and developmental terms. My noble friend Lord Eden rightly said that those issues are of the utmost importance. When we consider the calls we make on our counterparts in the developing world to uphold standards of good governance, transparency and accountability, it is vital that we should be able to lead on these issues by our own example. This is no different when we look at the natural resource sector, be it forestry, fishing, oil or minerals. The recent controversial European fishing deal with Morocco, the World Wildlife Fund criticism of the failure to control deep-sea fishing, the International Fund for Animal Welfare’s renewed campaign against commercial whaling in Japan and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species ban on trade in caviar and other products from the sturgeon at the start of this year are only a few examples that emphasise concerns surrounding unsustainable fishing and the significant impacts both here and aboard. It is a topic that needs to be tackled head on before we completely decimate the world’s fisheries, destroy marine habitats and kill billions of unwanted fish and other marine animals. My noble friend Lord Inglewood gave the good example of the herring stock in the North Sea. My noble friend Lord Eden mentioned the WWF report, which stated that,"““unsustainable fishing is predominantly caused by poor fisheries management and wasteful destructive fishing practices . . . as a result the future of the fishing industry is under threat, as are already endangered marine species and habitats, and the livelihoods and food security of millions of people””." Environmentally, bycatch has been responsible for the death of over 300,000 small whales, dolphins and porpoises each year, pushing several species to the verge of extinction. My noble friend Lord Eden mentioned loggerhead turtles, which are very much endangered. More than 250,000 of them and the critically endangered leatherback turtles are caught annually on longlines set for tuna and swordfish. Twenty-six species of seabirds, including 17 albatross species, are threatened with extinction because of longlining, which kills more than 300,000 seabirds each year. Within this context is our own fishing industry. The UK fleet landed 654 tonnes of sea fish with a total value of £513 million in 2004. In addition, we imported some £1,473 million worth of fish, and exported fish and fish products to the tune of £881 million. We have a substantial fish processing industry of around 573 businesses, which employ some 18,180 people. The Government admitted in their strategy unit report, Net Benefits, that the,"““current systems of UK and EU fisheries management will not ensure long-term, sustainable commercial fish stocks””." Indeed, the common fisheries policy has failed to conserve fish stocks and protect the livelihoods of fishermen. The noble Lord, Lord Whitty, admitted that the CFP had not faced up to the real difficulties of conservation and ensuring the fair sharing of the burden. This is not leading by example. What steps have Her Majesty’s Government taken to assess the current fish stocks and encourage sustainable fishing practices with the use of refined equipment and techniques to reduce the incidence of bycatch? How are they ensuring the affordability of such equipment and the training for various techniques? We on these Benches believe that the best way to ensure sustainable fishing is to allow the nation’s fishermen to run the industry on a local basis; and also within a strategic framework set by national Government in which the priorities should be the restoration of the marine environment and the rebuilding of the industry managed on a day-to-day local basis. On a larger scale, what response have Her Majesty’s Government undertaken in light of calls that regulators have failed to respond to the expansion of bottom trawling in deep waters? What representations have they made to support the provision of more teeth to these regulators and the WWF recommendation that the United Nations should review fishing on the high seas and strengthen the resolve of regional authorities to deal with states that flout agreements? I would also appreciate it if the noble Baroness could outline the Government’s stance on Japan’s continual and increasing violations of the 20-year ban on whaling, which has been mentioned. I now turn to the issue more commonly known as ““conflict timber””. Thanks to the invaluable work of organisations such as Global Witness and the Environmental Investigation Agency, the link between natural resources, especially illegal timber, and human rights issues has been exposed; as have the hidden costs such as declining biodiversity, soil erosion and increased risk of fires as seen in the infamous south-eastern haze nine years ago. The human rights angle has been highlighted in the recent trial of Gus Kouwenhoven in The Hague who admitted that revenues from Liberia’s illegal logging industry were used to import weapons, despite the UN arms embargo. Similar links were exposed regarding the funding of the Khmer Rouge, which began to disintegrate once international pressure forced the Thai Government to close their border to its illegal logging trade. Conflict timber has also been identified as a significant source of revenue for violent conflict in Burma and for supporting the Mugabe regime in Zimbabwe. I commend the lip service that Her Majesty’s Government have undertaken on the issue, but I remind the House that the UK is the biggest importer of illegal wood within the EU, which itself is responsible for £3 billion of lost revenue to producer countries. This lost revenue is vital to help developing countries stand on their own feet and manage their resources in a more environmental manner. Why bother if the market price for sustainable timber is consistently being undercut by cheaper illegal wood? It is vital that we maintained joined-up government on the issue, both in terms of preventing the import of illegally harvested timber and supporting the implementation of forest law enforcement, training and awareness projects through DfID and EU programmes in the source countries. What steps have Her Majesty’s Government taken to ensure that imported timber, especially for government projects, is sourced only from sustainable managed reserves that can be properly traced, especially when it is imported through third countries such as China? What pressure have the Government put on the international community to promote laws in the EU and the US specifically to prohibit the import and sale of illegally sourced timber and wood products? What representations have the Government made to the authorities in Indonesia and other source countries to prosecute financial crimes relating to illegal logging and to criminalise the illegal sawmill bosses and owners, following the recent criticism by the Indonesian Minister responsible for logging? What projects do we support that encourage appropriate training and remuneration for forestry inspectors to help to prevent temptation in the form of bribes? These two issues merit separate debates. However, it is clear that there are strong themes running through both which emphasise the importance, both politically and environmentally, of natural resources and the role that they play in human rights and development issues. The current levels of effective policing in the developing world of forestry and fishing issues are not enough.