A European-wide fundraising campaign to save Brazil's threatened rainforest has been launched at Bristol Zoo Gardens.

Officials hope the Rainforest Campaign 2002 - organised by the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria (EAZA) - will protect the country's ecosystem by raising funds for endangered species.

The city's zoo opened on Wednesday and plans several other fundraising events.

The conservation programme, which has already led to the establishment of several reserves, involves the Brazilian government, scientists and conservation organisations.

Lion tamarins

Dr Jo Gipps, Bristol Zoo director and chair of the EAZA conservation committee said: "In the 1970s, the wild population of golden lion tamarins fell to below 200.

"A conservation programme involving zoos in the US and Europe has been very successful and captive-bred tamarins have been released into the wild.

"Many of these re-introduced tamarins have bred successfully and there are now over 1,000 golden lion tamarins in the wild.

"Similar conservation programmes are in place for golden-headed, black and black-faced lion tamarins.

"The support of zoo visitors has played a large part in enabling the conservation community to save these beautiful monkeys from extinction.

The Atlantic rainforest ranks among the top five of the world's 25 threatened biodiversity hotspots with less than 8% of the original forest remaining.