Eight nations with the largest tropical forests have agreed to push for their protection to be made eligible for carbon credits.

Rachmat Witoelar, Indonesia’s environment minister, said Brazil, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, Gabon, Cameroon, Costa Rica, Congo and Indonesia, with 80 per cent of the world’s tropical forest cover, had formed the Forestry Eight, whose goal is to have forest preservation included in the successor to the Kyoto protocol on climate change, which expires in 2012. Under Kyoto, only reforestation and afforestation are eligible for carbon credits.