Lewis Smith

London  - A PROJECT to map every place in the world's second-largest tropical forest where trees have been cut down will be announced today. A purpose-built camera will be sent into space to record every clearing and logger's track in the Congo Basin in Africa to determine how much of the forest is left.

The camera will be fixed to a satellite and should be operational by the end of 2010 as part of an initiative to save the Central African tropical forest from being chopped down.
At twice the size of France, the Congo Basin forest is exceeded in extent only by the Amazon. However, it is estimated that loggers, many of them illegal, destroy an area the size of 25,000 football pitches every week. 
Forests absorb huge quantities of carbon but it is released when they are cut down, and their preservation is regarded as one of the biggest challenges by those trying to slow the greenhouse gas emissions that drive climate change.
British International Development Secretary Douglas Alexander was to announce overnight extra funding to save the forest, while explaining the camera project, which will record the forest in more detail than before.
Mr Alexander was expected to say in a speech: "Avoiding deforestation is crucial in the fight against climate change. As the world's second-largest rainforest, the Congo Basin must be at the heart of our response.
"The basin houses a quarter of the world's rainforest, but already an area the size of 25,000 football pitches is cleared of trees every week.
"Protecting the rainforest will help us all in the fight against climate change and also the 50 million people who rely on the Congo forests for their livelihoods."
Once the detailed satellite pictures have been taken, they will be beamed to a new receiving station, the first to be built in Central Africa. Printouts of the pictures can then be taken to villagers to show them what is happening to their environment.
At two million square kilometres, the Congo Basin contains an estimated 26 per cent of the world's remaining rainforest and has been described as the world's "second lung".
A study by the UN revealed that more than two-thirds of the forest could be lost by 2040 unless the rate of tree removal were greatly reduced.
Logging, the spread of agriculture and human population rises are the biggest threats.
It is estimated that the forest is home to 50 million people, 10,000 species of plants, 1000 species of birds and 400 species of mammals.