Asked by: Angela Smith (Liberal Democrat - Penistone and Stocksbridge)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what progress he has made in establishing the largest marine sanctuaries in the southern oceans; and whether those marine sanctuaries remain one of the primary goals of his Department’s Blue Belt policy.
Answered by Alan Duncan
The UK is a leading advocate for marine protection across the Southern Ocean. The UK secured agreement for the first Marine Protected Area (MPA) designated by the international Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) and we strongly supported the Ross Sea region MPA, which was agreed in 2016. The UK is a co-proponent for MPA proposals in the Weddell Sea and in East Antarctica, both of which will be presented to the next CCAMLR meeting in October for adoption. We are also playing a leading role in developing an MPA proposal for the Antarctic Peninsula.
The Blue Belt initiative is primarily focused on British waters around the UK Overseas Territories and we remain committed to protecting 4m square kilometres of UK waters by 2020. South Georgia & the South Sandwich Islands and the British Antarctic Territory both fall within the CCAMLR Convention Area, and the UK therefore works within CCAMLR to underpin protection measures implemented within our own waters.
Asked by: Angela Smith (Liberal Democrat - Penistone and Stocksbridge)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what proportion of the South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands marine protected area is legally designated as a fully no-take area.
Answered by Alan Duncan
The South Georgia & the South Sandwich Islands sustainable use MPA, established to deliver defined conservation outcomes, covers 86% of the maritime zone. No commercial fishing licences are granted across the remaining 14% of the maritime zone.
There are a number of legal provisions in place for the effective management and conservation of the South Georgia & the South Sandwich Islands sustainable use MPA including: no-take zones from the coast to 12 nautical miles around Shag Rocks and South Georgia and 3 nautical miles from the South Sandwich Islands coast covering 2%; an additional pelagic no-take zone extending 12 nautical miles South Sandwich Islands coast; total ban on commercial bottom trawling; depth restrictions on fishing for the Marine Stewardship Council certified toothfish fishery protecting 92% of the sea floor habitats; and prohibitions on krill fishing during the summer breeding period (1 November to 31 March).
Asked by: Angela Smith (Liberal Democrat - Penistone and Stocksbridge)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how many kilometres of the South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands marine protected area are legally designated as fully no-take areas.
Answered by Alan Duncan
The South Georgia & the South Sandwich Islands sustainable use MPA, established to deliver defined conservation outcomes, covers 1.074 million km2. No commercial fishing licences are granted across the remaining 166,207 km2 of the maritime zone.
There are a number of legal provisions in place for the effective management and conservation of the South Georgia & the South Sandwich Islands sustainable use MPA. There are approximately 20,500 km2 of full no-take zones; 18,000 km2 of additional pelagic no-take zones; prohibitions of long-line fishing across 989,000 km2; and a complete ban on commercial bottom trawling.
Asked by: Angela Smith (Liberal Democrat - Penistone and Stocksbridge)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what proportion of the South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands marine protected area is permanently closed to krill fishing.
Answered by Alan Duncan
The South Georgia & the South Sandwich Islands sustainable use MPA, which covers 86% of the maritime zone, permits sustainable, highly precautionary fishing activities to take place. No commercial fishing licences are granted across the remaining 14% of the maritime zone.
There are permanent pelagic no-take zone around South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, from the coast out to 12 nautical miles. Through the Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources, krill fishing is restricted around South Sandwich Islands to 15% of the scientifically determined total allowable catch for the region, deemed highly precautionary. In addition to these international measures domestic regulations also prohibit fishing during the breeding period of the krill-eating penguins, seals and other natural predators and natural exclusion by sea ice in winter further restricts human activity.
Asked by: Angela Smith (Liberal Democrat - Penistone and Stocksbridge)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how many kilometres of the South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands marine protected area is permanently closed to krill fishing.
Answered by Alan Duncan
The South Georgia & the South Sandwich Islands sustainable use MPA, established to deliver defined conservation outcomes, covers 1.074 million km2. No commercial fishing licences are granted across the remaining 166,207 km2 of the maritime zone.
The permanent pelagic no-take zone extends 12 nautical miles around South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands covering 38,500 km2. In addition to the highly precautionary international regulations through the Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources, there are seasonal closures during the breeding period of the krill-eating penguins, seals and other natural predators (1 November to 31 March) across the entire 1.074 million km2 MPA and natural exclusion by sea ice in winter further restricts human activity.
Asked by: Angela Smith (Liberal Democrat - Penistone and Stocksbridge)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, whether any commercial fishing for krill has taken place within the South Sandwich Islands Exclusive Economic Zone in the last 25 years.
Answered by Alan Duncan
The South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands sustainable - use Marine Protected Area (MPA) Permits, highly precautionary fishing activity. No commercial fishing for Antarctic krill has been undertaken in the last 25 years.
Asked by: Angela Smith (Liberal Democrat - Penistone and Stocksbridge)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent assessment his Department has made of biodiversity in the South Sandwich Islands.
Answered by Alan Duncan
The South Sandwich Islands are remote and as a consequence data-poor in comparison to other Subantarctic regions. There is also a very real threat to the ecology of the South Sandwich Islands from volcanism, with recent eruptions from the volcanoes on Zavodovski, Saunders and Bristol.
Recent scientific work indicates that unlike penguin colonies on the Antarctic Peninsula, the penguin colonies on the South Sandwich Islands are stable. To further enhance our understanding of the South Sandwich Islands, the UK's Blue Belt initiative has funded a scientific expedition to visit the South Sandwich Islands in late January 2019, allowing information to be collected on a variety of topics, including on krill and on the benthic communities that inhabit the seabed. UK scientists are also leading work within international scientific research programmes to improve our understanding of this and the wider Southern Ocean region.
Asked by: Angela Smith (Liberal Democrat - Penistone and Stocksbridge)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what proportion of the Government of South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands' total annual revenues came from commercial fishing operations licensed to operate within the (a) South Georgia and (b) South Sandwich Islands Exclusive Economic Zone in the last three years.
Answered by Alan Duncan
The financial accounts of Government of South Georgia & the South Sandwich Islands are freely available on their website.
For 2016, the latest year for which accounts have been published, the total annual revenue from the sale of commercial fishing activities in South Georgia was 73% of the (£5,586k) and for South Sandwich Islands 1.8% (£134K). These figures do not include associated economic activity such as harbour fees and non-revenue outcomes such as scientific research.
Asked by: Angela Smith (Liberal Democrat - Penistone and Stocksbridge)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what discussions he has had with his Burmese counterpart on prisoners of conscience in that country.
Answered by Lord Swire
The release of political prisoners has been an early priority for the new NLD-led government, with over 100 having been released since Friday.
The UK Government has long campaigned on the issue of political prisoners in Burma and we welcome this quick action.
Asked by: Angela Smith (Liberal Democrat - Penistone and Stocksbridge)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps the Government is taking to promote trade and diplomatic connections with the Commonwealth.
Answered by Lord Swire
The UK is committed to maintaining and strengthening its economic and diplomatic engagement with the Commonwealth. The Prime Minister, my right hon. Friend the Member for Witney (Mr Cameron) led a strong UK delegation to the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting (CHOGM) in Malta in November. He announced funding for a number of initiatives including to help the Commonwealth’s small island states develop their maritime economies.
The UK pressed to ensure that trade issues were covered in the CHOGM communique. Commonwealth leaders agreed to advance global trade negotiations and in particular ratify the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement.
I and The Minister for Trade and Investment, the right hon the Lord Maude of Horsham, took part in the Commonwealth Business
Forum in Malta. Lord Maude addressed the opening plenary on leveraging trade networks across the Commonwealth, and pushed for progress on free trade agreements to facilitate and increase trade between Commonwealth countries. He also held a number of bilateral meetings to discuss trade and investment opportunities. The UK continues to be a strong supporter of the Commonwealth Enterprise and Investment Council which organised the Business Forum and is expanding business networks across the Commonwealth.