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

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the World Wide Fund for Nature <i>Living Planet Report 2014</i>; what proposals they have to halt the destruction of species; and what they consider to be implications of the findings of that report for the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.

The Government considers the Living Planet Report an interesting contribution to increasing our understanding of the scale of the challenge facing species internationally but has made no formal assessment of its findings.

Internationally, we frame our work on biodiversity under the UN Convention on Biological Diversity’s (CBD) Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020 and its Aichi Biodiversity Targets. A comprehensive assessment, the Fourth Global Biodiversity Outlook, was published at the recent 12th Conference of the Parties to the CBD. This reported significant progress towards meeting some components of the majority of the Aichi Biodiversity Targets. However, in most cases, additional action will be required to meet the targets by 2020. The Parties agreed to take comprehensive and urgent measures to ensure the full implementation of the Strategic Plan, including through the development and implementation of their national biodiversity strategies and action plans.

The Government helps achieve these global targets internationally through elements of Overseas Development Aid (particularly forest protection through the International Climate Fund and contributions to the Global Environment Facility) and through direct and financial support for various international agreements including the CBD, the Convention on Migratory Species and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). The Darwin Initiative provides up to £6 million bi-lateral funding annually for developing countries to help meet their obligations under these international agreements, improve biodiversity and natural environment management and reduce poverty; and up to £2 million annually from the Darwin Plus fund for projects in the UK’s Overseas Territories.

The UK Government is also taking a leading role in global efforts to end the illegal wildlife trade. In December 2013, we announced a £10 million funding package to support efforts in developing countries to tackle the illegal trade in wildlife products. In February 2014 we hosted a high-level international conference for leaders from over 40 nations. This resulted in the London Conference Declaration, containing 25 commitments to action on enforcement and criminal justice, demand reduction and sustainable livelihoods.

Domestically, the Government set out its response to the CBD’s Strategic Plan in “Biodiversity 2020: A strategy for England’s wildlife and ecosystem services”, which aims to halt overall biodiversity loss by 2020. The strategy includes a commitment to achieve an overall improvement in the status of our wildlife and to prevent further human-induced extinctions of known threatened species.

It will be for Parties to CITES to decide how that Convention should respond to the Living Planet Report and other information about the status of species, which may be reflected in future proposals to list endangered species under the Convention.