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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to minimise deforestation (a) in the UK and (b) abroad.

As forestry is a devolved matter this answer relates to England only.

The Forestry Act and the Environmental Impact Assessment regulations afford woodlands protection from inappropriate felling and land use change.

The Government is committed to accelerating new woodland planting and has a number of manifesto commitments to support afforestation in England, including the planting of 11 million trees and a further one million trees in our towns and cities by 2022.

The Government also has a number of schemes to support afforestation including the Woodland Creation Grant under Countryside Stewardship, the Woodland Carbon Fund, and the Woodland Creation Planning Grant.

In January the Prime Minister announced through the 25 Year Environment Plan the support of the new Northern Forest, which will see 50 million trees planted by 2042.

The 25 Year Environment Plan also outlines our commitment to supporting and protecting the world’s forests, supporting sustainable agriculture and enhancing sustainability and supporting zero-deforestation supply chains.

The UK Government endorses the New York Declaration on Forests, which aims to end natural forest loss by 2030, and is a member of the Tropical Forest Alliance 2020. Alongside Germany and Norway, we have pledged $5 billion to support countries that are reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation. Through International Climate Finance, Defra has committed £210m in projects and programmes that aim to protect the world’s most biodiverse forests, for example in Brazil, Sri Lanka, Zambia and Madagascar.