To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment when his Department first contacted the director general of the Forestry Protection and Nature Conservation Authority in Indonesia requesting information on CITES annex C2 species; and if he will make a statement.

We have had no direct contact with the Indonesian authorities. I understand that the European Commission wrote to them in 1987, and again in 1988, 1990 and, most recently, on 2 December this year. Officials from the Commission and the CITES secretariat have also discussed wildlife issues with the Indonesian authorities.