Norway to complete $1bn Amazon protection project

Norway will complete a $1 billion project this year that rewards reduced deforestation in the Amazon basin, Norway's Environment Ministry said on Tuesday.

Norway will make a final payment of $100 million to Brazil and the project has exceeded the target of reducing the rate of deforestation by 75 per cent.

Brazil’s Amazon Fund was established in 2008 and Norway has paid about $900 million into the fubnd with the aim of protecting the forest and combatting climate change.

The remaining $100-million will be paid before the key United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris in December, according to the ministry.

In a statement, Norwegian Environment Minister Tine Sundtoft (pictured) said: "Brazil has established what has become a model for other national climate change funds."

Norway is one of the biggest donors towards rainforest protection funds with Oslo also supporting projects in Indonesia, Guyana, Liberia and Peru.

According to the World Resources Institute, the global rate of deforestation slowed for the third year in a row in 2014, but forest area twice the size of Portugal was lost.