The British Indian Ocean Territory is constitutionally distinct and separate from the UK, with its own laws and Administration. It is administered by the British Indian Ocean Territory Administration (BIOTA) who have responsibility for the protection of the Marine Protected Area, including issues relating to illegal unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing.

The UK has strict border controls in place to detect and prevent illegal imports. In 2022, Border Force seized two separate imports of rhino horn originating from China and South Africa. The UK’s National Wildlife Crime Unit also plays a critical role in preventing wildlife crime, including through intelligence work, threat analysis, and by directly assisting law enforcement.

Through our Biodiverse Landscape Fund we are working directly with partner Governments in the Kavango-Zambezi (KAZA) Transfrontier Conservation Area to tackle the illegal wildlife trade, including rhino poaching. We are also investing £30 million between 2022 and 2025 to tackle IWT globally, including through our Illegal Wildlife Trade Challenge Fund.

Combatting the Illegal Wildlife Trade, including reducing poaching, was most recently discussed with the Tanzanian Minister for Constitutional and Legal Affairs during the Illegal Wildlife Trade Conference in London on 11 and 12 October 2018. It was also raised by the Secretary of State for International Development when she met the President of Tanzania during her visit to Dar Es Salaam on 9-10 August 2018.

Official development assistance is administered with the promotion of the economic development and welfare of developing countries as its main objective. All programming, including any for anti-poaching, is considered in line with the Government development objectives as outlined in the UK Aid Strategy.

The department has mechanisms in place to monitor the effectiveness of spending to combat the illegal wildlife trade. All illegal wildlife trade grants have to report on what they have achieved with the money allocated to them, and have an agreed monitoring and evaluation plan and targets. Illegal Wildlife Trade Challenge Fund projects submit six-monthly, annual and final reports on their progress. The annual and final reports are reviewed by an independent assessor.

No assessment has yet been made on the potential merits of increasing the number of UK Armed Forces personnel engaged in training and mentoring rangers.

Further to my answer of 31 October 2017 to Question 109460, on poaching, Liwonde National Park in Malawi was selected for a pilot project to test our methodology. Once the Pilot has concluded, we will conduct an evaluation of our approach and, where appropriate, make recommendations for subsequent training and mentoring activity.

The Department has supported efforts to address the illegal wildlife trade through funding of the Global Environment Facility and by providing funding to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs including for the Illegal Wildlife Trade Challenge Fund. The Department for International Development’s funding to the Global Environment Facility was £35 million in 2010 and £52.5 million each year since then. £13 million was committed by the Department to tackle the Illegal Wildlife Trade in the period of 2014 to 2018, to be administered by Defra. We are unable to provide a breakdown of the proportion of this funding that was specifically targeted at anti-poaching efforts in Africa.

A team of seven UK Armed Forces personnel have been providing training and mentoring to African Parks rangers since August in Liwonde National Park, Malawi.

In November a short term training team of 11 UK Armed Forces personnel will travel to Gabon, to train up to 60 rangers from the Agence Nationale des Parcs Nationaux in counter-poaching patrolling skills.

The Department for International Development uses the Development Assistance Committee of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development definition of Official Development Assistance (ODA). The OECD’s definition of ODA does not set a specific definition of welfare.

All schools are required to teach a balanced and broadly based curriculum that promotes the spiritual, moral, cultural, mental and physical development of pupils, and prepares them for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of later life. Teachers in all schools are therefore free to discuss environmental topics such as poaching and the ivory trade.

The National Curriculum is compulsory in maintained schools, and academies and free schools can use it as a benchmark. The science national curriculum includes references to animals and their environment, and provides opportunities to teach about positive and negative human impact on these.

The Department for International Development supports nations to tackle poaching and the illegal ivory trade primarily through UK contributions to the Global Environment Facility. The Global Environment Facility is providing $131 million (£97 million) over seven years from 2015 to the Global Wildlife Programme which is tackling both the supply of and demand for illegal wildlife products across countries in Africa and Asia. In addition DFID has invited bids for tackling the illegal wildlife trade through UK Aid Direct, one of our principal schemes for funding civil society organisations. We also continue to work closely with DEFRA on their aid-funded activities to tackle the illegal wildlife trade.

The Department for International Development supports anti-poaching activity in sub-Saharan Africa where it promotes sustainable development or improved welfare, and is likely to contribute to a reduction in poverty. This is a requirement under the International Development Act. We have not made a separate assessment of legality under international laws.

In accordance with Her Majesty's Government's 1960 Declaration of the Administration of the Sovereign Base Areas, laws in the Sovereign Bases Areas (SBAs) reflect as far as possible those applicable in the Republic of Cyprus. The maximum penalty applicable under the SBA's Game and Wild Bird Ordinances for, among other offences, the offence of intentionally or recklessly pursuing, killing, injuring or capturing a wild bird was amended in 2013 to bring it into line with the Republic's Protection and Management of Game and Wild Birds (Amendment) Law 2012. While the SBAs did not, for practical reasons, introduce the system of penalty points and fixed penalties contained in the Republican law, this does not constrain the powers available to the court in dealing with such offences.