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Fishing and Logging Policies

My Lords, I, too, am grateful to my noble friend Lady Whitaker for securing today’s debate and giving us all the opportunity to discuss and raise awareness about environmentally sustainable fishing and logging policies. As she and other noble Lords have graphically demonstrated, both fisheries and forests are essential to the livelihood and sustenance of the poor, but also to wider global sustainability. There are powerful pressures on the world’s fisheries and forests. Developing countries are faced with growing demands on their resources from rapidly expanding domestic and international markets. At the same time, the need to manage and protect these resources in a sustainable way—for the long-term benefit of poor countries and for the global environment—has never been more pressing. My noble friend Lord Hunt raised the question of education and the role that schools might play in raising awareness in the UK and in developing countries. I am delighted to inform noble Lords that there are some excellent government initiatives that have linked schools in the UK with schools in developing countries. They interact via the internet, webcams, and so on. I will certainly provide noble Lords with further information. The economic, environmental and social impact of the fishing industry is a key element in the fabric of the UK’s coastal waters and communities. The industry is part of the social fabric of many coastal communities and has an important contribution to make to the well-being of the marine environment, which includes achieving sustainable fisheries. Defra’s five-year strategy highlights the need to put sustainable development into practice. Embedded in the strategy are its key marine fisheries objectives. These include: ensuring clean, healthy, safe, productive and biologically diverse oceans and seas; and a fishing sector that is sustainable, profitable and supports strong local communities, managed effectively as an integral part of coherent policies for the marine environment. The Government also recognise the importance of fisheries to developing countries. International trade in fish amounts to $60 billion a year, half of which has its origins in developing countries. The value of fish exports is greater than the combined values for tea, coffee, cocoa and sugar. I find that quite staggering. Sustainable fisheries can make a significant contribution to economic growth and poverty reduction in the developing world but, in many countries, this contribution is limited by problems of poor management, as recognised by the noble Lord, Lord Astor. Pressures are being generated by high demand for fish products in rich countries, by high levels of poverty and increasing numbers of people having to resort to fishing to sustain a basic livelihood—and, in some cases, by developed countries subsidising their fleets to move into the waters of poorer countries. Illegal fishing is causing particular problems. DfID-funded research has found that $9 billion a year is lost to illegal fishing internationally and that a major part of that cost is borne by poorer countries. Defra and DfID are working closely to implement an international plan of action to tackle illegal fishing. In sub-Saharan Africa alone, the value of illegal fishing is $1 billion per year. However, not all is doom and gloom. Success stories such as Namibia show the way forward. There was a 39 per cent rise in GDP contribution from fisheries between 1990 and 2000. Political commitment and good management led to control of illegal activity, resulting in increases in productivity, revenues and jobs. I am pleased to report that my honourable friend Gareth Thomas recently had discussions with the Namibians about developing a regional approach, along the lines of the Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade Regulation. If such an initiative were developed by African regional groupings, DfID would consider financial support, but I assure the noble Lord, Lord Inglewood, that that would be an Africa-led initiative. They would be in the driving seat and we would be there supporting them; it would not be a sort of neo-colonial initiative. In the long run, the contribution of sustainable fishing to the economies of developing countries can be realised only if rich countries take into account the impact of their policies on developing countries. DfID and Defra are working to ensure that there is coherence in international fisheries policy as it relates to developing countries. My noble friend Lady Whitaker asked about the Government’s approach to the European Union, whose members fish heavily off the African Coast. We have been working to ensure that the EU pays increasing attention to coherence between the Community’s fisheries objectives and EU international development objectives—for example, by promoting the need for greater scrutiny of fisheries agreements to ensure that they are equitable and benefit the developing countries concerned. The European Commission is committed to participating in the international action plan to take forward the recommendations of the High Seas Task Force and to tackling illegal fishing, especially through ensuring rigorous monitoring and surveillance of its own fleet operating under fisheries agreements. I can assure my noble friend Lord Hunt that monitoring continues to be of the utmost importance. The noble Lord, Lord Chidgey, asked for an update on the action plan for fishing. Defra and DfID are now establishing a joint unit to implement the plan. This week, a team is at the UN to promote wider involvement in the action plan. Furthermore, we are in discussion with the Government of Namibia, as I have just reported . In passing, I mention what the Government are doing to promote the private sector, a question asked by the noble Lord, Lord Inglewood. DfID is promoting business-to-business links between European and African timber companies through the Timber Trade Federation—I have moved on to timber. It is also working with a group of progressive European timber companies to improve forest management. Finally, it is working with the private sector in the UK to promote sustainable fisheries. Developing countries will also need the capacity to manage their resources if they are to secure their share of the benefits from these resources. The Government are prepared to offer support to help countries to develop that capacity, and to help them to negotiate better terms in their relations with the developed countries of the world. I note the concerns expressed by the noble Lord, Lord Palmer, and I will certainly ensure that these are brought to the attention of the House authorities. I am sure that we would all warmly support what he is endeavouring to achieve. I now move from fish in our own restaurants to chips and, in doing so, I pay tribute to the noble Lord, Lord Eden, for his untiring efforts to sustain the rainforests. He asked what, among other things, we were doing for indigenous populations. I assure him that the UK is working in partnership with a number of countries and a wide range of organisations to protect the livelihoods of forest-dependent poor people, including indigenous peoples, and to ensure that benefits from commercial logging support them and the development in their communities. DfID is working to ensure that indigenous peoples in the Democratic Republic of Congo have a voice and can secure benefits for local people from the activities supported by the World Bank. The pressures on the world’s rainforests, more than half of which have already been lost, are enormous. Much of the logging is both illegal and unsustainable. Poor countries suffer the most. Illegal logging loses governments billions of dollars in lost revenue and distorts markets and trade. It promotes corruption, undermines the rule of law and sometimes funds armed conflict. It also has environmental consequences, as many noble Lords have pointed out, including the loss of habitats and biodiversity. Climate change studies suggest that deforestation is responsible for about 20 per cent of man-made carbon dioxide emissions. The UK Government provide support to forestry in developing countries through DfID, Defra and the FCO. The main support, through DfID country programmes, averages £18 million per year. The FCO supports sustainable forest management through its global opportunities fund, and Defra supports work on biodiversity through the Darwin initiative. I regret that I omitted to respond to the noble Lord, Lord Eden, about sonar devices in fishing and their implications for whales. The Government are aware of the potential damage from developments in sonar initiatives. They are funding research to try to understand better the impact of such new technologies, and will establish a policy to address the problem once there is a clear understanding of the interactions with marine mammals. DfID’s current work is focused on addressing the policy, governance and market failures that drive illegal and unsustainable logging. Its support for improved forest governance, law enforcement and trade and for stronger civil society engagement in policy making is helping to promote sustainable logging policies in timber-producing countries such as Indonesia and Ghana. It also contributes substantial funds to the development of international forest policy through the World Bank, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation and the Global Environment Facility. Last year, the UK was host to G8 Environment and Development Ministers, and we reached agreement on some important policy commitments to reduce demand in G8 countries for illegally logged timber. There was other progress in 2005. Under our EU presidency, the EU Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade Regulation, which the noble Lord, Lord Chidgey mentioned, was adopted. We will now be able to enter into agreements with timber-producing countries and provide them with assistance to tackle illegal logging and to reform their forest policies, governance and trade. DfID will spend £24 million over the next five years to support this work. I think that the noble Lord asked for an update on where we are on the EU regulation and how many countries have signed up to it. I cannot give him a reply at present. It is very early days, but I undertake to inform all noble Lords in writing as soon as we have any progress. As I mentioned, this year we will continue to work with the private sector to encourage responsible business practices that favour legal timber, and we will build on the successes of the UK’s timber procurement policy and the commitment of central government departments to procure products made from legal and sustainable timber. My noble Friend Lady Whitaker referred to DfID’s newly launched strategy for research on sustainable agriculture. This includes: a programme to use more research to help to validate and promote the best innovations from previous DfID-funded research; four regional research programmes—three in Africa and one in Asia—which will work on regional priorities in close partnership with existing regional organisations; and a joint-funded programme with UK research councils to ensure that basic research is promoted and adapted for use in developing countries. None of these elements takes a sectoral approach, and naturally we consider sustainable agriculture to include the management of forest resources. It is likely that sustainable forest resource management will be prioritised to some extent within each element. The noble Earl, Lord Sandwich, spoke of the dire conditions of workers involved in ethanol production in Brazil. The Government are indeed aware of the dreadful condition of those workers, but the Brazilian Government have publicly stated that they want to eradicate such practices before the end of their term, and have prepared legislation to confiscate farms that practice slave labour. Our Government raise with the Brazilian Government the importance that we attach to addressing these and other human rights concerns in Brazil. That was done most recently in April when my noble friend Lord Triesman called on Brazil’s special secretary for human rights. The challenges related to environmentally sustainable fishing and logging are enormous. It is absolutely clear that, in the long run, the contribution of both sustainable fishing and logging to the economies of developing countries can be realised only if the rich countries take into account the impact of their policies on developing countries, and if the latter have the capacity for sustainable management of their own resources. I trust that the initiatives I have outlined today demonstrate that we are committed to working on both fronts, and are making progress.