The UK is to spearhead a major global crackdown on illegal timber and deforestation, with plans to form a coalition of developing countries against the trade as part of its hosting of crunch UN climate talks this year.

Deforestation is a leading factor in rising global greenhouse gas emissions, but many developing nations lack the means and institutions to combat illegal logging and regulate forest industries. The Department for International Development (DfID) will shortly lay out plans to help countries strengthen the rule of law, support the trade in responsible forestry and provide on-the-ground assistance to stamp out illegal logging.

“The illegal timber trade robs the earth of trees, which not only help stop climate change, they also play a critically important role in maintaining the world’s threatened biodiversity,” said Zac Goldsmith, a minister for international development. “This is a huge success story for the UK and for the world, and sets the scene for what we hope will be a successful year of international cooperation in the run-up to COP 26.”

The UK will need to form a global coalition of developing countries to put pressure on leading economies to act swiftly on carbon, if this year’s UN climate talks are to succeed. The UK will host the COP 26 talks in Glasgow in November, but the government has faced a troubled start to its presidency, with the abrupt sacking of the intended president, the former energy minister Claire O’Neill, and delays in setting out a clear plan.

All countries are expected to come forward with tougher plans to reduce global emissions as part of COP 26, and experts have said this will only happen if the UK takes the lead in forming a coalition of small and big developing countries, including forested African nations and Indonesia, as well as major economies such as the US, China, India and the EU.

Offering assistance to developing countries, in the form of finance and technical expertise, will be vital to that effort.

Lord Goldsmith, who is rated by Ladbrokes as favourite to take over the reins of COP 26 in Boris Johnson’s expected reshuffle, pointed to some notable victories against deforestation so far. He said targeted intervention by the UK had recently led to an “extremely important” prosecution of a major illegal trading operator in Indonesia, and had encouraged China to strengthen its legal commitments to ending the trade.

“These are vital steps towards making sure there is no safe harbour for illegal timber anywhere in the world,” he said. “The UK will continue to work with China, Indonesia and our other international partners to protect the world’s forests for future generations.”

The new project, still in the planning stages, will build on the government’s forests governance, markets and climate programme, the focus of which includes strengthening the rule of law in affected countries in the developing world, influencing international partners to increase their efforts, supporting responsible trade and helping stakeholders on the ground to act.

The DfID also helps developing countries to access new technology in the fight against deforestation, including electronic wood tracking, which marks trees with digital barcodes that officials can scan at each stage of the supply chain, and a GPS-enabled smartphone app, to enable local communities to monitor and report illegal logging in real time.

In 2005, only about a fifth of Indonesia’s timber trade was legal. But today, after interventions by the UK and other partners, 100% of exports are sourced from independently audited factories and forests.

In Liberia, the programme helped forest communities to negotiate fair contracts with logging companies to stop illegal deforestation, and a new land rights act was signed into law which for the first time recognised women’s rights to land.