The United Kingdom will contribute £15 million to the World Bank's Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF), UK Environment Secretary Hilary Benn announced in Bali today.

Mr Benn told the plenary session of the UN climate conference in Bali that emissions from deforestation were too damaging to be ignored, and that pilot programmes to reduce emissions from deforestation were essential alongside including deforestation in any negotiations on a future climate agreement.

The Forest Carbon Partnership Facility is designed to support developing countries to participate in programmes that reduce emissions from deforestation. It will also pilot schemes that provide incentives for reducing deforestation emissions.

Hilary Benn said: "Deforestation makes up around 20 per cent of carbon dioxide emissions. We need to deal with emissions from deforestation now - and we need to ensure that any future climate framework includes deforestation.

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"We want to see comprehensive negotiations on a future deal to be launched at the end of this week - and dealing with emissions from deforestation must be a central part of those negotiations."

UK International Development Secretary Douglas Alexander said: "Cutting deforestation emissions is a must if we are to avoid dangerous climate change, and it also brings real benefits for communities who depend on forests for their livelihoods, and for increasingly vulnerable biodiversity.

"Forest resources are among the primary assets of the poor and creating a system that allows them to conserve the forests and diversity of livelihoods will help tackle poverty by improving their income and wellbeing."

The World Bank launched the FCPF on Tuesday in Bali, and has set a target of $300 million overall for the facility. The UK's contribution represents 10 per cent of the overall target.

The FCPF will provide support to prepare countries to participate in pilot schemes for reducing deforestation below an agreed national reference level. The UK hopes this will also help to catalyse must much larger sources of funding, perhaps linked to the carbon market through any future climate change agreements negotiated between now and 2009.

The UK's contribution will be met jointly by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and the Department for International Development (DfID).

The European Union has welcomed the FCPF and called for concrete policies aimed at eliminating deforestation within 20 to 30 years.

This funding is part of the UK's wider efforts, including £50 million ($100 million) to help reduce unsustainable deforestation in the Congo Basin, which was announced earlier this year as part of the $1.2 billion Environmental Transformation Fund.

(GK/JM)