Edinburgh-based sustainability software and data company Ecometrica has won a contract worth more than £14 million from the UK Space Agency’s recently launched International Partnership Programme (IPP).

The “Forests 2020” project is set to help countries improve management and protection across 300 million hectares of tropical forests — an area 12 times the size of the United Kingdom.

It will see Ecometrica leading an international consortium that brings together many of the world’s leading experts on forest monitoring.

The deal is the largest so far to come from the £150 million UK Space Agency programme.

It is a significant contract for Ecometrica, which reported sales of £2.77 million in its last financial year.

As part of the project, Ecometrica will sub-contract experts from the University of Edinburgh, the University of Leicester and another Edinburgh company, Carbomap.

Ecometrica will also bring together partners in Brazil, Colombia, Ghana, Indonesia, Kenya and Mexico, where Earth Observation laboratories will be set up to assess threats to rainforests and help direct conservation resources.

The project is due to complete in March 2020.

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.”

Richard Tipper, executive chairman of Ecometrica, said: “This will help to establish Ecometrica as a leading international provider of digital infrastructure for earth observation services.

“Working with several organisations in each of the six countries, including research institutions, NGOs and conservationists on the ground, this project will help improve the capacity to implement effective forest and ecosystem monitoring services.

“It is estimated that improved monitoring systems, which enable a more targeted approach, could help prevent the loss of four to six million hectares of forest over the next decade: that’s an area more than half the size of Scotland, or two to three times the size of Wales.

“We all know how important tropical rainforests are to the survival of the global ecosystem, but most people are only just waking up to the fact that we need to use technology to make sure conservation efforts are effective and properly directed.

“The Earth Observation platforms will ensure threats such as fires and illegal logging are detected sooner, and make the response on the ground faster and more cost effective.”