Spy satellite will monitor illegal logging across six African

A spy satellite is to be trained on the vast rainforests of central Africa as part of a British project designed to protect them from illegal logging under plans to be unveiled today.

The 1m high-resolution camera will beam images of the Congo Basin Rainforest to a new ground station to allow governments, NGOs and local communities to prevent the rainforests being lost.

The equipment, which can photograph objects as small as 10 metres across, will hover 650km (400 miles) above the rainforest to track illegal logging operations, as well as monitor pollution levels and help monitor agriculture. A 1.5m satellite ground station will also be built in the region as part of an 8m package of measures to be announced today to prevent dangerous deforestation in the region.

British ministers hope the satellite camera, likely to be launched in two years' time, will also provide images for a 1.8m mapping project designed to help the 51 million inhabitants of the rainforest to establish their land rights and prevent loggers seizing territory.

The new initiative will be unveiled at the launch of a global fund to back projects to preserve the rainforest, the world's second- largest tropical forest.

The forest covers an area twice the size of France and contains 26 per cent of the world's remaining rainforest, extending across six countries; Cameroon, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon and the Republic of Congo.

Estimates suggest that 3,600 square miles of forest are cut down in the forest each year. Britain has donated 50m to the new fund, which ministers hope will rise to 250m to prevent the rainforest suffering the type of deforestation which has depleted the Amazon's rainforest.

The fund is part of an 800m initiative to help developing countries cope with the effects of climate change and develop environmentally friendly technology.

It will be chaired by Wangari Maathai, the Nobel Peace Prize winner who founded the Kenyan Green Belt Movement, which has been responsible for planting 40 million trees across the country to prevent soil erosion. Paul Martin, the former Canadian prime minister, will also jointly chair the fund.

Douglas Alexander, the Secretary of State for International Development, said: "Avoiding deforestation is crucial in the fight against climate change. 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."

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