Harry Potter author JK Rowling has been awarded The Order of the Forest by Canadian environmental organisation Markets Initiative.

Ms Rowling was given the prize after working to get 16 of her publishers to use environmentally-friendly paper, which Markets Initiative said had helped protect the world’s forests.

According to the Vancouver-based firm, the English-language version of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the last instalment of the boy wizard books, has saved the equivalent of 197,685 trees and reduced greenhouses gases by the same amount as taking 1,577 cars off the road, all by using ‘green’ paper.

“JK Rowling asked her international publishers to find paper that was free of ancient or endangered forests,” said Markets Initiative executive director Nicole Rycroft.

“With millions of her books now printed on ‘green’ paper, she’s helped take the heat off carbon and biodiversity storehouses like Canada’s boreal forest.”

Markets Initiative added that Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is “considered within the industry to be the most environmentally-friendly in publishing history”.