Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what support her Department provides to nations to help them tackle poaching which results from the illegal ivory trade.

The Department for International Development supports nations to tackle poaching and the illegal ivory trade primarily through UK contributions to the Global Environment Facility. The Global Environment Facility is providing $131 million (£97 million) over seven years from 2015 to the Global Wildlife Programme which is tackling both the supply of and demand for illegal wildlife products across countries in Africa and Asia. In addition DFID has invited bids for tackling the illegal wildlife trade through UK Aid Direct, one of our principal schemes for funding civil society organisations. We also continue to work closely with DEFRA on their aid-funded activities to tackle the illegal wildlife trade.