There are a couple of interesting points within the 2007 Budget for ecologists.

• Early 2007 CSR settlements for the Department of Trade and Industry’s ring-fenced science budget and the Department for Education and Skills, which together deliver average annual growth of 2.5 per cent in real terms over the CSR period.
• In the 2007 CSR the Government will create a new international window of the Environmental Transformation Fund (ETF) with £800 million of overseas development assistance to support development and poverty reduction through environmental protection, and to help developing countries respond to climate change. The Government will allocate £50 million from the fund to support proposals made by ten Congo Forest countries to help them protect the Congo Basin’s forests and people.