A FAMOUS North Yorkshire business has pledged to save 1.5 million hectares of rainforest in its latest climate change initiative.

Bettys and Taylors, which runs a chain of tea rooms in the county, plan to save a forested area the size of Yorkshire from destruction.

And to launch their ambitious scheme baker Mark Raine has created a magnificent rainforest tree - complete with frogs, toucans and parrots - made entirely of bread.

The company, with outlets in Northallerton, Harrogate, York and Otley, already has a history of campaigning for the environment - their long-running Trees for Life appeal has already planted three million trees around the world.

However saving 1.5m hectares of rainforest is its biggest challenge to date and for the first stage the company has joined forces with the Rainforest Foundation UK to save an area the size of the Yorkshire Dales in Peru’s Amazon rainforest.

"The wholesale destruction of the rainforest is a major contributor to climate change", said the company’s ethical trading manager Cristina Talens, just back from a week visiting rainforest communities in Peru.

"We’ve always enjoyed great support for our tree planting projects from our customers and staff and we hope that together, through the Yorkshire Rainforest Project, we can help rainforest communities to protect their rainforest lands for future generations worldwide."

The family business will be allocating part of its "Five per cent Fund" – a commitment to sharing its profits with charitable and community projects – to rainforest conservation.

It will also be supporting the project through fund-raising specialities and initiatives including a donation from every Bettys 90th Birthday Afternoon Tea sold this summer.