Lily Cole launches SKY Rainforest Rescue

Supermodel and actress Lily Cole is the face of a new campaign to save one billion trees in the Amazon. Launched by Lily today at Kew Gardens, it marks a joint effort to stop the destruction of the rainforests with the help of the British public. Eleni Sardi writes.

Currently in the spotlight for her performance in one of the most anticipated films of the year, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, Lily Cole is unswerving with her green support.

‘It’s hard to appreciate the importance of the rainforest because it seems so far away but it’s vital to the survival of the planet as we know it.  The destruction of the rainforest is having a huge impact on our climate and on the millions of animal and plant species. And the millions of people who live there.’

It has been estimated that today in the Amazon alone an area the size of three football pitches is destroyed every minute. If current rates of deforestation continue, over half of all our rainforests will disappear within the next 20 years.

SKY’s ‘Rainforest Week’ starts on Monday 26th October with documentaries about the rainforests and the people of the Amazon hitting the air and continuing into 2010.

SKY and WWF have teamed up to with a call for donations. They estimate that every £10 will help save 500 trees.  To kick start the project, Sky will match donations pound for pound, up to a joint target of £4 million.

Rainforest Rescue Campaign

LAUNCH GALLERY OF LILY IN KEW GARDENS