Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, how much her Department has spent on marine conservation projects overseas in the last five years for which figures are available.

The Department supports marine conservation activities overseas through our funding to the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the Global Environment Facility (GEF). For example FAO hosts the International Plan of Action to Prevent, Deter, and Eliminate Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing. The GEF has funded marine protected areas across the world that are more than twice the size of Alaska.

The UK’s core support to FAO in the past five years was a total of £92 million, comprising £42 million in 2012/13, £32 million in 2014/15 and £18 million in 2016/17. DFID’s contribution to the Global Environment Facility in the past five years was £262.5 million, comprising £52.5 million per year for each of the financial years from 2012 to 2016 inclusive. Neither FAO nor the GEF publish a breakdown of spending specifically on marine conservation.