Tag: Lord Jones of Cheltenham

  • Lord Jones of Cheltenham – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Lord Jones of Cheltenham – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Jones of Cheltenham on 2014-04-08.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what effect they expect that the recently announced Elephant Protection Initiative will have on the illegal wildlife trade; and what support they are giving to the Initiative.

    Lord De Mauley

    The Government warmly welcomes the Elephant Protection Initiative (EPI), launched at the London Conference on the Illegal Wildlife Trade in February 2014 by the Presidents of Botswana, Chad, Gabon and Tanzania, and the Foreign Minister of Ethiopia.

    Through the EPI, these Governments are committing to:

    · observing an extended moratorium on consideration of future international ivory trade

    · closing domestic ivory markets

    · putting all ivory stockpiles (both seized ‘illegal’ and ‘legal’ ivory accrued from elephant mortality) beyond economic use.

    In response to these bold commitments, the EPI is intended to provide participating Governments with access to a fund to support the implementation of the measures contained in the Africa Elephant Action Plan. The UK Government has committed to supporting this fund, in the first instance by matching the first tranche of private sector funding amounting to around £1m.

    The text of the Elephant Protection Initiative can be accessed through the following link: www.gov.uk/government/news/decisive-action-agreed-on-illegal-wildlife-trade.

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  • Lord Jones of Cheltenham – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Lord Jones of Cheltenham – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Jones of Cheltenham on 2014-04-08.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they are taking steps to encourage the governments of China and Vietnam to cease the trade in ivory.

    Lord De Mauley

    The Governments of both China and Vietnam participated at Ministerial level in the London Conference on Illegal Wildlife Trade on 12 and 13 February 2014. They joined the other participating countries in agreeing to the London Conference Declaration. In this, Governments have committed to support the existing CITES commercial prohibition on international trade in elephant ivory until the survival of elephants in the wild is no longer threatened by poaching. They have also committed to taking a wide range of actions to reduce the demand for wildlife products, including ivory, and to agreeing for the first time to renounce the use of any products from species threatened with extinction. We very much welcome this strong signal by China and Vietnam of their commitment to join the rest of the international community in tackling the scourge of the illegal trade in ivory and other wildlife products.

    In the margins of the Conference I had constructive meetings with both Forestry Vice Minister Jianlong Zhang of China and Deputy Agriculture and Rural Development Minister Ha Cong Tuan of Vietnam to discuss the impacts of the illegal wildlife trade and the action needed to tackle the problem. I hope to visit Vietnam in the near future to continue this constructive dialogue.

    We will also fund two projects in Vietnam which applied through the 2013-2014 Darwin Initiative Funding Round, at a total cost of just over £0.5m. These will be supported from the £10m of new funding for tackling the illegal wildlife trade, announced on 23 December 2013 by the Secretaries of State for Environment and International Development. One project is focused on combating wildlife trafficking by cutting out the ‘middle man’. The other will support action to reduce demand for rhino horn.