Questions Without Notice from Party Spokespeople

Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Social Justice – in the Senedd at 1:45 pm on 22 September 2021.

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Photo of Joel James Joel James Conservative 1:45, 22 September 2021

Thank you, Llywydd. It has been reported that between 1990 and 2015 approximately 63 per cent of Uganda's forest was cut down. Esther Mbayo, Minister of the Presidency, stated in 2016 that a lot of illegal logging, and I quote, had involved

'security personnel, some politicians, [forest] officers, timber traders, charcoal dealers and the locals.'

Just before recess, the Size of Wales project, which is responding to the global need to reforest, and is part funded by the Welsh Government, recently celebrated the planting of 15 million trees in the Mount Elgon region of Mbale in Uganda—a feat well worth recognising by everyone in Wales.

A written question to the Minister for Social Justice has revealed that the Welsh Government have memorandums of understanding with four district Governments in the Mbale region of Uganda, however, these are not specifically for the long-term protection of the trees planted through the Size of Wales project. On the one hand, I can clearly see this Government's attempt to help reforest our planet and create sustainable livelihoods for subsistence farmers in Uganda, but on the other hand, I can see that you have failed to put in place any measures to safeguard the trees that this Government has extensively invested in. Can the Deputy Minister, or the Minister, explain why this Government would spend millions of pounds of public money planting trees in another country, and then not bother to put into place any agreement with the Ugandan Government—local or otherwise—to protect the Mount Elgon site from being targeted by illegal loggers?