UK pledges £10m to Brazil forest project

The UK government has committed £10 million to a project aimed at tackling deforestation in Brazil, which should provide a boost to air quality as a result, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has revealed.

Environment secretary Caroline Spelman announced details of the funding at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Durban, South Africa yesterday (December 4th).

The scheme will be based in the Cerrado, which is situated in the centre of the South American country and will focus on preventing the widespread harvesting of trees and will also help farmers plant new vegetation on bare land. As well as this, the initiative will look at ways to prevent forest fires from breaking out.

Ms Spelman commented: "The Cerrado is rich in biodiversity and yet, alarmingly, it has almost halved in size, because of wild fires and the demand for agricultural products."

Defra also announced that £1 million would be put aside to help local authorities in the UK to tackle air pollution.

Posted by Joseph Hutton