Lily Cole is Amazon rainforest ambassador

Lily Cole has told how her admiration for late environmental activist Anita Roddick and a childhood love of nature led her to become an ambassador for the Amazon rainforest.

The St. Trinian's star has teamed up with the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) for the Sky Rainforest Rescue campaign, which aims to help protect one billion trees in the South American rainforest.

Lily Cole was inspired to get involved by her hero Roddick, who founded ethical retail chain The Body Shop to promote eco-friendly beauty products.

She tells Britain's The Sun newspaper, "I'm not like some cliche hippy but I really love trees and I love nature. And that appreciation has grown as I've got older.

"I suppose I have always cared a lot about things, even as a child and I really admired Anita Roddick for what she did... She traveled the world. She went to Ghana and found people making shea butter and putting it on their skin and said, 'We should be having this in England - and they should be getting a return for it.'"

The British beauty travels to the Amazon rainforest to see the charity's work in action in upcoming TV special Lily Cole's Amazon Adventure, which airs in the U.K. on 17 March (13).