BRASILIA, (Reuters) – Brazil has announced its first  projects from a new foreign-financed fund to help protect the  Amazon forest and fight climate change, days before developing  nations seek more aid at a U.N. climate summit.

Brazil launched the Amazon Fund last year to promote  sustainable development and scientific research in the world’s  largest rain forest with the help of international aid.

Norway has pledged $1 billion to the fund through 2015 and  Germany pledged 18 million euros ($26.8 million).

The three first recipients are U.S.-based environment group  The Nature Conservancy, Amazonas state and Imazon, an  environmental research institute in the Amazon city Belem, the  environment ministry said in a statement late on Thursday.

The Nature Conservancy in partnership with other groups  will receive 16 million reais ($9.4 million) to regenerate  degraded land and promote other environmentally-friendly  practices in Mato Grosso state.

Imazon will receive 12 million reais to monitor land title  registration and promote sustainable practices among farmers  and loggers in the Amazon state of Para.

The Amazonas state government will receive 20 million reais  for a fund that pays rubber tappers and other forest dwellers a  stipend to help protect and regenerate the forest.

Brazil will announce a further three aid recipients at the  Dec. 7-18 Copenhagen climate summit, where it will join with  other developing countries to demand that industrialized  nations pay more to protect carbon-trapping forests.

The South American nation, which is seeking a leadership  role in climate talks, is eager to showcase it is serious about  reaching its ambitious target of cutting greenhouse gas  emissions by 20 percent from 2005 levels.

It also wants to show potential donors that the fund works.  Some countries initially balked at the idea of contributing to  the fund without having any say in its use.