Thanks to Julian Borger at guardian.co.uk for bringing us news about the Congo Basin Forest Fund, which launched today. The fund, which is the largest ever set to combat deforestation, was implemented by Britain and Norway to help fight deforestation in the vast Congo basin rainforest in Central Africa. The two countries are providing £108 million plus satellite imaging technology to monitor the area.

Throughout the congo mining and logging companies are prepared to offer large rewards to communities and regional authorities to open up their forests. The fund is intended to provide African governments and people living in the rainforest with a viable alternative to logging, mining, and chopping down trees for firewood and subsistence farming.

The Congo Basin Forest Fund will be co-chaired by Wangari Maathai, a Kenyan environmental activist and Nobel Peace laureate, and Paul Martin, a former Canadian prime minister.

[Via: Guardian]

[Photo: World Resources Institute]