Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to her Department’s press release entitled UK leads global efforts to help communities save the ocean and beat poverty, published on 26 January 2026, what assessment her Department has made of the potential benefits of funding overseas marine conservation through the Ocean Community Empowerment and Nature Grants Programme on UK taxpayers.

Marine conservation delivers a wide range of benefits. These include reducing global biodiversity loss and preventing ecosystem collapse, systems that are vital for global security and economic growth in the UK and in developing countries. Some of the world’s most biodiverse and vulnerable coastal ecosystems and communities are in developing countries.

The National Security Assessment on global biodiversity loss, ecosystem collapse, and national security, published in January, highlights how environmental degradation can disrupt food, water, health, and supply chains, and can trigger wider geopolitical instability. These impacts pose significant threats to UK national security and long‑term prosperity.