The agreement will see the west African country receive $150m from Norway if it stops cutting down the rainforest by the end of the decade. Liberia’s rainforest is home to several endangered species, including western chimpanzees, forest elephants and leopards.

Norwegian officials confirmed details of the deal to the BBC at the United Nations climate change summit in New York.

Under the terms of the deal, Norway will help Liberia build up the capacity to monitor and police the forests. Liberia has agreed to place almost a third of its forests under protected area status by 2020 and will refrain from issuing any new logging licenses until existing ones have been independently reviews.

The agreement will also see direct payments to communities for protecting the forest.

‘We hope Liberia will be able to cut emissions and reduce poverty at the same time,’ said Jens Frolich Holte, a political adviser to the Norwegian government.

‘We have funded efforts in Indonesia and Brazil, but I think this is the first time we have entered a deal on a country level.’

A report published last month by an evaluation team at the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation noted that Norway had made considerable progress in conserving natural forest in the developing world.

However, it criticised often ‘inadequate’ planning and reporting of results and the risk presented by the uncertain future funding.

‘One of the main motivating factors to encourage a country to commit itself to forest conservation and emission reductions is the pledge of disbursements for results achieved… Uncertainty about the future financing of such result-based payments is the greatest risk for further progress,’ the report stated.