· 417
Written Answers
2 APRIL 1990
the Cross River and Bendel States encompassing the Oban Hills National Park and the Okomu forest sanctuary. Costings not yet available.
Rwanda
Landrover presented to Karisoke Research Centre, internationally renowned for its research on gorillas. Cost £15,000.
Tanzania
Joint funding of the Faith Foundation's Operation Rhino Rescue Project, a scheme designed to provide sanctuary for Tanzania's dwindling rhino poplulation. Cost £50,000.
Three Landrovers have been presented to the Ruaha
Game Park for use in anti-poaching activities. UK consultants have undertaken a study to identify possible ways of helping with wildlife conservation. Their proposal to assist with planning and management at Ruaha National Park is under consideration. Estimated cost of the study is £10,000. Final cost of proposal to be determined.
Zambia
Funding of a Wildlife Management Consultancy to review the management of wildlife in Mpika District. No costs available as this forms part of a wider District Development support project.
Zimbabwe
Equipment and buildings to Chirundu Conservation Education Camp in the Zambezi Valley. Cost approximately £9,000.
Co-financing Action Plan: an education programme aiming to promote conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. (The environmental health magazine produced as part of this project is also distributed throughout schools in Botswana and Zambia. Cost £85,000.
Communal Areas Wildlife Management Projects in Northern Zimbabwe, to help local people develop the ability to manage their wildlife resources sustainably. Cost appoximately £800,000.
Wildlife Disease Epidemiology Project involving the provision of one UK expert and support equipment to carry out wildlife disease research and establish a database of the incidence and distribution of wildlife diseases. Estimated cost £340,000.
Regionally
£1 million block grant to World Wide Fund for Nature (formerly World Wildlife Fund) to help conserve forest and other resources, important habitats for many endangered wildlife species. Projects are being funded in Cameroon, Ethiopia, Kenya, Liberia, Madagascar, Nigeria, Tanzania and Zambia.
Development Spending
97. Sir David Steel: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement on progress towards attaining the 0-7 per cent. of gross national product level of aid/development spending.
Mrs. Chalker: In 1988 United Kingdom official development assistance as a percentage of gross national product was 0.32 per cent. The Government have accepted the United Nations target for official development assistance of 0.7 per cent. of GNP, but, like previous Administrations and many other donors, have not set a timetable for achieving it. Progess must depend on economic circumstances and other claims on resources.
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Written Answers
Caribbean
418
100. Mr. Butler: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what is the current level of assistance given to islands in the Caribbean.
Mrs. Chalker: We provide assistance both bilaterally and through multilateral institutions. Bilateral aid in 1988 (the latest year for which figures are yet available) was:
Anguilla Antigua Barbados
Cuba
Country programmes
£'000s Commonwealth Development Corporation
1,599
1,164
505
British Virgin
Islands
511
Cayman Islands
2,200 1,600
2
Dominica
1,973
Dominican Republic Grenada
114
1,225
9
5,367
2,286
2,095
808
869
146
4,233
Haiti Jamaica Montserrat
St. Kitts/Nevis St. Lucia
St. Vincent
Trinidad
Turks and Caicos
Islands
2,040
1 1
There is also a regional technical co-operation allocation of about £2 million a year from which all the developing Commonwealth countries in the Caribbean region benefit, but it is not possible to attribute specific amounts to individual recipients.
We also provide disaster relief when the need arises. In 1988, we committed £3 million to Jamaica, following Hurricane Gilbert, of which £348,000 was spent in 1988.
It is also possible to calculate the share of multilateral aid attributable to the United Kingdom. In 1987 (the latest year for which the calculation can be made) the total was £15-540 million, of which £9.9 million was through the European Community.
Eastern Europe
101. Mr. Matthew Taylor: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs whether any aid planned for eastern Europe will come from the overseas development budget.
Mrs. Chalker: The expenditure on aid for eastern Europe for which we have sought parliamentary approval in main estimates is additional to the official United Kingdom aid programme.
Rain Forests
102. Mr. Tom Clarke: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what percentages of Overseas Development Administration funds intended to help protect tropical rain forests, including and excluding funding for the Oxford Forestry Institute, are to be channelled through the tropical forestry action plan.
Mrs. Chalker: The tropical forestry action plan is not a fund or organisation to which donors contribute funds. It is a mechanism under which recipient countries review their forestry sectors and donors can co-ordinate
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