Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to help reduce deforestation.

The UK Government is committed to a package of measures to tackle deforestation both in the UK and abroad.

In England, when a felling licence is issued, there is a presumption to replant after tree felling. The Forestry Commission also has an enforcement capability under the Forestry Act 1967 (as amended) to combat unlicensed and illegal felling, with additional measures in the Environment Act 2021 that commenced on 1 January 2023 enhancing these enforcement tools.

The UK Timber Regulations aim to tackle illegal logging internationally and to create a demand for legally harvested timber. Illegal logging is a major global driver of deforestation, leading to loss of ecosystem services and biodiversity, and contributing to climate change. It also affects rural communities that rely on forests for livelihoods, and results in revenue loss to Government and legitimate business. The UK Timber Regulations prohibit the placing of illegally harvested timber and timber products on the market and requires operators, those first placing such products on the market, to exercise due diligence on their supply chains.

The UK Government has introduced world-leading due diligence legislation through the Environment Act to help tackle illegal deforestation in UK supply chains. In 2021-22 we ran a consultation to seek views on how we should implement Environment Act provisions, including which commodities we should regulate through the first round of secondary legislation, and have since published a summary of responses, available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/tackling-illegal-deforestation-in-uk-supply-chains.

The UK is also tackling deforestation through International Climate Finance (ICF), which the Government has committed to double to £11.6 billion from 2021/22 to 2025/26, spending at least £3 billion of this on climate change solutions that protect and restore nature and biodiversity. Through the ICF, we support a range of sustainable agriculture programmes that aim to reduce deforestation and land degradation caused by conversion of land to agriculture whilst improving the sustainability and resilience of food systems.