A new state-of-the-art Brazilian satellite, developed to help monitor deforestation around the world, will be equipped with a British-made high resolution camera. Amazonia-1 will be launched in 2011 and will orbit the Earth fourteen times a day at a distance of 400 miles.

The Brazilian Space Agency (Agência Espacial Brasileira – AEB) will make the photographs of global forests freely available to other governments and also to the public. It is anticipated that the images will be particularly useful in helping Brazil and African countries to detect and tackle illegal activity in the two largest rainforests on earth – the Amazon and the Congo.

The bilateral cooperation on the Amazonia-1 project was announced yesterday by Brazilian science and technology minister, Sergio Rezende, and the British ambassador to Brazil, Peter Collecott, at the annual meeting of the Brazilian Society for Progress in Science (Sociedade Brasileira para o Progresso da Ciência – SBPC) in Campinas, near São Paulo.

The two bodies working together on the project are Brazil's National Institute for Space Research (Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais – INPE) and the UK's Rutherford Appleton Laboratory – Science & Technology Facilities Council.

Commenting on the satellite's potential contribution in combating deforestation, UK trade and development minister Gareth Thomas said that 'the leadership shown by the Brazilian Government to help tackle the problem is timely and greatly welcomed by the UK' and expressed the hope that Amazonia-1 will be 'the first step in a productive and mutually beneficial endeavour by our governments on satellite monitoring to tackle deforestation and climate change'.

Gilberto Camara, director of the AEB, said: 'Amazonia-1 represents an important step in the construction of an integrated global earth observation network for the public good. With this project Brazil and the UK will be at the forefront of free data provision, which will play a crucial role in helping other countries, especially in Africa, to monitor their own land use and forests.'

The joint initiative is a result of discussions initiated in 2007, during the UK-Brazil Year of Co-operation on Science and Technology.

Source: Brazilian Space Agency and UK Department for International Development