The Minister for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency, Greg Combet, today marked World Environment Day by outlining Australia’s support for protecting forests in developing countries.

Highlighting this year’s theme - World Environment Day: Forests: Nature At Your Service - Mr Combet said Australia was working to protect global forests.

“The Gillard Government is actively supporting development of a global mechanism to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries,” Mr Combet said.

“Australia is working with partner countries to help build their capacity and assist them with practical action on deforestation and forest degradation.”

Australia is helping ensure robust forest monitoring is in place to support emissions reduction activities.

“The Government is strengthening regional forest data accessibility by building a new satellite data receiving facility in northern Australia. This will give better access to satellite images, a key need for forest monitoring,” Mr Combet.

“Australia has also built a regional archive of satellite data acquired from receiving stations throughout the region. This offers neighbouring countries much better access to necessary data.”

Australia is also a supporter of the intergovernmental Group on Earth Observations (GEO) which has established a global effort on enhanced forest monitoring.

This week the Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency will host a delegation of officials from Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi for a workshop on national forest carbon accounting systems.

Mr Combet took the opportunity on World Environment Day to praise the work of people dedicated to improving the environment.