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Ridgeway
Lord Avebury asked Her Majesty's Government:
- When they expect to receive the assessment of the condition of the Ridgeway from the Countryside
- Agency, requested by the Minister for Rural Affairs; and whether they will make this assessment the basis for consultations on further measures that may be needed from the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to protect the Ridgeway from damage by motor traffic. [HL2910]
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Lord Whitty): The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has no plans to consult on this issue.
The Ridgeway Management Group (comprising the relevant highway authorities and the Countryside Agency) has commissioned an audit of the condition of the trail throughout its full length. The report is expected in the early summer. The management group will then consider what further action is required to ensure that the surface of the Ridgeway is maintained to an appropriate standard.
Sustainable Development
Baroness Miller of Chilthorne Domer asked Her Majesty's Government:
- Whether they will ask the World Trade Organisation to include environmental impact assessments when a conflict may arise between trade rules and sustainable development.[HL3105]
Lord Whitty: The Doha Development Agenda, agreed by Ministers at the fourth Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organisation in Doha in November 2001, strongly reaffirmed the WTO's collective commitment to the objective of sustainable development.
The ministerial declaration states: "We are convinced that the aims of upholding and safeguarding an open and non-discriminatory multilateral trading system, and acting for the protection of the environment and the promotion of sustainable development can and must be mutually supportive".
The declaration assigns a new role to the WTO's Committee on Trade and Development and Committee on Trade and Environment to act as forums to identify and debate the developmental and environmental aspects of the negotiations in order to support the objective of having sustainable development considerations appropriately reflected during the course of the new trade round.
The declaration also explicitly supports "the efforts by Members to conduct national environmental assessments of trade policies on a voluntary basis". This reflects the view which is strongly held by the majority of WTO members that environmental or sustainability impact assessments should be entirely voluntary in nature and should be conducted at the national level.
The United Kingdom and the European Union strongly support the use of environmental or sustainability impact assessments as a tool to assist the
development of countries' trade policies with a preference for sustainability impact assessment as this allows the full range of economic, environmental and social impacts to be considered in a balanced way.The EU is, therefore, undertaking its own sustainability impact assessment (SIA) of the new round. The European Commission has recently awarded a contract to the Institute for Development Policy and Management at the University of Manchester to conduct a detailed and rigorous SIA of the new round. The results of the SIA, when available, will be used by the EU to inform its approach to the negotiations. Regular consultations with civil society on the scope and findings of the SIA will be convened by the European Commission. A dedicated website has been set up to provide easily accessible reports on the progress of the SIA. Lynne
Trout and Cormorants
Lord Mason of Barnsley asked Her Majesty's Government:
- What assessment has been made by the Environment Agency of the damage caused to inland trout lakes through the constant killing of trout by cormorants; and what protection is being provided to safeguard trout stocks.[HL3132]
Lord Whitty: In 1996, the Environment Agency, together with DETR and MAFF, launched a research programme to improve the level of information on piscivorous birds and their impact on fisheries. The survey concluded that predation by cormorants was a problem at specific fisheries rather than a general problem.
As well as providing information on a wide range of non-lethal anti-predation measures, DEFRA issues licences to allow the shooting of a limited number of cormorants as an aid to scaring where it can be demonstrated that the cormorants are having a serious effect on the performance of a fishery and where there is no other satisfactory solution. Recent studies suggest that stocking with larger trout is a cost-effective option for reducing losses to cormorants.
Lord Mason of Barnsley asked Her Majesty's Government:
- Whether the Environment Agency is encouraging a cull of the cormorant; and how many licences have been issued to kill cormorants.[HL3133]
Lord Whitty: The Environment Agency does not encourage the cull of cormorants as they are a protected species under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. The destruction or taking of these birds, their eggs or their nests is prohibited except under licence from DEFRA or one of the statutory conservation bodies (in England, English Nature). The Act does provide for them to be controlled under licence to prevent serious damage to fisheries although there are no powers to undertake a general cull.
In the licensing year 200-01 (May to April), DEFRA issued in England a total of 79 licences to shoot a total of 506 cormorants. The number reported to have been shot was 199. English Nature only issued one licence for the purposes of scientific research, but no cormorants were killed under this licence. Lynne
Lord Mason of Barnsley asked Her Majesty's Government:
- Whether they will estimate how many rainbow trout are killed by cormorants each year; which regions are suffering most; which cormorant species are most responsible for the depletion of trout stocks; and from where they originate. [HL3134]
Lord Whitty: No estimate has been made of the number of rainbow trout taken by cormorants.
Cormorants in the UK belong to a single species Phalacrocorax carbo but there are two distinct races or sub-species. Phalacrocorax carbo carbo is found predominately on the north-east Atlantic coasts of Europe (especially the British Isles). Phalacrocorax carbo sinensis breeds almost exclusively inland beside
freshwaters and is found across much of Europe, as well as in Russia, India, China and Japan, Phalacrocorax carbo carbo accounts for most of the predation on rainbow trout.
Lord Mason of Barnsley asked Her Majesty's Government:
- What discussions have taken place between the Environment Agency and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds to rid trout lakes of cormorant activity. [HL3135]
Lord Whitty: The Non-Governmental Joint Fisheries Policy and Legislation Working Group, chaired by Lord Moran, now holds regular and on-going discussions with the Environment Agency, RSPB, English Nature, and various angling bodies to discuss the way forward in resolving problems caused by cormorants. These discussions have previously resulted in the leaflet Cormorants: The Facts, published in 2001, which seeks to communicate the various cormorant management options to the angling community. Ridding trout lakes of cormorant activity is not practicable.
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