To ask the Secretary of State for International Development how much (a) direct and (b) indirect funding his Department has allocated for the purpose of reducing levels of deforestation in developing countries in the last five years; and whether projects funded by his Department for such purposes have involved the planting of trees. (285766)

The Department for International Development (DFID) does not record expenditure on reducing deforestation or on the planting of trees. It uses the two categories of expenditure required by the Development Aid Committee of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD): Forestry Policy and Administrative Management; and Forestry Development. Total bilateral expenditure incurred on forests in the last five financial years was:

£20.0 million in 2003-04;

£15.8 million in 2004-05;

£15.5 million in 2005-06;

£15.6 million in 2006-07; and

£7.4 million in 2007-08.

Since 2007-08 the following sums have been committed:

£10 million to the Congo Basin Forest Fund for start-up activities.

£50 million to the Congo Basin Forest Fund and £15 million to the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility, from the International Window of the Environmental Transformation Fund. In December 2008 it was announced that up to another £100 million would be made available for forests from the Environmental Transformation Fund.

£5 million for work by the Rights and Resources Initiative over a five-year period to help accelerate forest tenure, policy and market reforms.

£1.5 million to the National Forest Programme Facility over a three-year period.

£1.5 million to PROFOR (Programme on Forests of the World Bank) over a three-year period.

£1 million for work on an Economics of Climate Change Study and work on low carbon development in Brazil, some of which relates to forests.