Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps his Department has taken to (a) provide and (b) facilitate (i) military and (ii) other training to law enforcement agencies in Africa to tackle wildlife poaching and smuggling.

The UK Government is committed to playing its part in international action to tackle wildlife poaching and smuggling.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office is using its network of diplomatic posts to influence international efforts to combat the illegal wildlife trade, including through supporting anti-poaching and trafficking initiatives.

In December 2013 the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Department for International Development announced £10 million of funding, over 4 years, to help developing countries tackle the illegal wildlife trade. The funding will support actions under three themes: developing sustainable livelihoods for communities affected by illegal wildlife trade, strengthening law enforcement and the role of the criminal justice system, and reducing demand for the products of illegal wildlife trade.

One of the projects already selected for funding aims to identify trafficking routes, individuals and networks involved in the illegal trade of elephant ivory and rhinoceros horns in Uganda, Kenya and South Africa. This project will increase cooperation between national and international authorities.

Further information about projects that successfully applied for funding under the competitive “Illegal Wildlife Challenge Fund” this summer will be available soon.

The FCO is working with a number of African countries in assisting them with options to provide anti-poaching training. For example, the British Army ran a training programme for the Kenyan Wildlife Service and the Kenyan Forestry Service, beginning in December 2013, with the aim of sharing operational tactics with Kenyan rangers following the killing of over 60 rangers on duty across the country by poachers in the past two years.