Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps his Department is taking to encourage the restoring of natural capital stock in the Global South.

DFID is protecting and restoring nature and the environmental services which sustain life and support economic development. Poor people depend most directly on natural resources for their livelihoods and are most directly affected by its degradation.

The UK’s £250m of support to the Global Environment Facility, including £150m from DFID, is helping developing countries to protect around 600 million hectares of land and marine habitats (an area equivalent to 24 times the size of the UK) and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by an estimated 1,600 million metric tonnes (the equivalent of an average car driving 4 million miles).

DFID directly supports action to tackle the degradation of key habitats, like tropical forests, home to up to 80% of global terrestrial biodiversity. Our bilateral programmes aim to tackle key drivers of deforestation, including illegal forestry practices and unsustainable production of agricultural commodities.

DFID’s Forest Governance, Markets and Climate programme (£250m, 2011-21) is addressing illegal deforestation and tackling the corruption which allows it to flourish. While our Investments in Forests and Sustainable Land Use (IFSLU) Programme (£93.5m, 2015-23) is supporting public-private partnerships with leading companies, helping to turn their commitments to sustainable practice into action. This aims to encourage sustainable economic growth together with the conservation of nature in developing countries.

DFID is co-leading (with Egypt) international efforts on climate resilience, including the resilience of natural ecosystems, at the United Nations Climate Action Summit in September.