A SCOTTISH company specialising in sustainability software and data has won a £14.2 million contract from the UK Space Agency’s international partnership programme aimed at saving millions of hectares of forests.

The ‘Forests 2020’ project aims to help countries improve the management and protection of 300 million hectares of tropical forests - 12 times the area of the UK.

Edinburgh-based Ecometrica said it would lead an international consortium of leading experts on forest monitoring. It added that the contract, due to be completed in March 2020 and awarded after a “highly-competitive” tender process, was the largest so far to come from the UK Space Agency’s £150m international partnership programme (IPP).

Ecometrica, noting it had reported sales of £2.77m in its last financial year, described the contract as a “significant win”.

The company said that, as part of the project, it would sub-contract experts from the University of Edinburgh, the University of Leicester, and fellow Edinburgh company Carbomap, a specialist in forest mapping. It added that the project would see it bring together partners in Brazil, Colombia, Ghana, Indonesia, Kenya and Mexico, where earth observation laboratories would be set up to assess threats to rainforests and help direct conservation resources.

Ecometrica executive chairman Richard Tipper said it was estimated that improved monitoring systems, which enabled a more targeted approach, could help prevent the loss of four to six million hectares of forests over the next decade. He noted this area was more than half the size of Scotland, or two to three times the size of Wales.

Launched last year, the IPP is aimed at bringing together UK space knowledge, expertise and capability to “provide a sustainable, economic or societal benefit to undeveloped nations and developing economies”.

Ray Fielding, head of the IPP at the UK Space Agency, said: “We are very pleased to be working with Ecometrica to address deforestation and sustainable forest management for developing nations. The programme will identify innovative ways that space technology can help in this important area, which has been identified by the UN as key for sustainable development, and we intend to make a real difference to the people on the ground working to preserve the world’s forests.”

Mr Tipper said: “This will help to establish Ecometrica as a leading international provider of digital infrastructure for earth observation services.”