Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to implement the £500-million Blue Planet Fund to restore marine ecosystems that the Prime Minister committed to at the UN High-Level summit on biodiversity; what the scope is of projects the Blue Planet Fund will support; how those projects are to be selected; and how that funding is planned to be distributed.
The Blue Planet Fund is being designed and delivered jointly by Defra and the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. The Fund will be resourced through the UK Aid budget and will help eligible countries and UK Overseas Territories reduce poverty and protect and sustainably manage their marine resources. It will build on other UK initiatives which aim to protect and manage the marine environment, such as the Blue Belt Programme and Commonwealth Marine Economies programme. The Fund focuses on tackling the key human-generated threats to the ocean including climate change, marine pollution and overfishing.