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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to protect tigers by (a) helping to curtail the illegal international trade in tiger body parts and (b) promoting UK conservation expertise to countries with remaining tiger populations.

The UK is investing £36 million between 2014 and 2021 to counter the illegal wildlife trade, including work to reduce demand, strengthen enforcement and ensure effective legal frameworks and develop sustainable livelihoods.

The UK has funded work to help CITES review implementation of its Resolution on the conservation of and trade in tigers and other Appendix-I Asian big cats. The UK’s Illegal Wildlife Trade Challenge Fund is supporting several projects featuring tigers, including work in Sumatra tackling illegal wildlife trade across two globally important tiger landscapes and in South East Asia strengthening enforcement.

Institutions such as the Natural History Museum, the Royal Botanic Gardens Research Councils and many British universities are actively engaged in promoting UK conservation expertise globally. This is supported by UK government programmes promoting protection of biodiversity, including the Illegal Wildlife Trade Challenge Fund and Darwin Initiative.