Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to encourage international collaboration on nature recovery programmes.

Protecting and restoring nature is a core theme of the UK's COP26 presidency. At the World Leaders Summit, leaders agreed to work together to halt and reverse forest loss and land degradation by 2030 through the Glasgow Leaders Declaration, which has now been signed by more than 130 countries, covering over 90% of global forest cover. During the COP fortnight, we will also be highlighting the Forest, Agriculture and Commodity Trade Dialogue to promote sustainable development and trade while protecting forests and other critical ecosystems; the Sustainable Agriculture campaign; and the 'Call for Ocean Action' towards ocean health and resilience.

These initiatives are part of the Government's wider efforts to put biodiversity on a path to recovery. Last year, we championed the Leaders Pledge for Nature, which aims to galvanise more political commitment and which 93 countries have signed to date. The UK has signed up to the goal to conserve or protect at least 30 per cent of the world's land and at least 30 per cent of the world's ocean by 2030, and to support our ambitions for nature, the Government has committed to invest at least £3 billion of our ODA budget over the period 21/22-25/26.