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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what funding his Department has allocated to programmes to help protect Asian elephants living in the wild.

Defra has provided over £4.2 million in funding for Asian elephants living in the wild since 2015 through the Darwin Initiative and the Illegal Wildlife Trade (IWT) Challenge Fund. These are competitive Defra grant schemes funded entirely through Official Development Assistance (ODA).

The IWT Challenge Fund and the Darwin Initiative have committed £2.9 million and £1.3 million respectively for Asian elephants since 2015 through 14 separate projects. These include a project seeking to reduce the illegal ivory trade in Cambodia, and a project supporting Nepal’s world-leading community anti-poaching efforts.