On this page you can find useful background information about the Climate and Forest Initiative:
Background
About
Goals
Challenges
Strategy
Design of national REDD-strategies
Developing the international REDD agenda
Cooperation partners:
1.Multilateral channels
-The UN-REDD Programme
-The Forest Carbon Partnership Facility
-The Forest Investment Program
-The Congo Basin Forest Fund
-The Guyana REDD+ Investment Fund
2.Bilateral channels:
-Brazil
-Tanzania
3.Research institutions and NGOs
Organisation and staff
Greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries account for almost one-fifth of the world’s total annual anthropogenic CO2 emissions. These emissions are not included in the Kyoto Protocol commitments. According to the Integovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation is an important and appropriate mitigation option, because it is relatively cost-effective and can bring about large-scale reductions in emissions relatively rapidly. The British Stern Review draws the same conclusion. 
Global warming is perhaps the greatest problem the world is facing today, and one of the most challenging tasks the world community has ever had to address. Norway’s overriding goal is for the average rise in global temperature to be limited to no more than 2°C above the pre-industrial level. According to the IPCC, a temperature rise beyond this level risks dangerous and unpredictable interference with the climate system. The poorest countries will be most severely affected.
According to the IPCC, global greenhouse gas emissions must peak by 2015, and must be cut by 50–85% relative to the 2000 level by 2050, in order to keep the average rise in temperature to 2.0–2.4°C. To achieve this long-term target, the developed countries must reduce their emissions by 25-40% by 2020, and developing countries with rapidly growing emissions must also cut their emissions substantially below projected levels. In practice, this means that large parts of the world economy must make the shift from a high- to a low-carbon trajectory in a relatively short period of time.
Measures to reduce deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries will be essential to achieve the target of limiting the temperature rise to 2°C. However, it should be emphasized that efforts to reduce these emissions must be additional to and not a replacement for efforts by more developed economies to reduce their emissions.
Reducing deforestation and forest degradation will have substantial benefits in addition to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. These include positive impacts on biodiversity and on sustainable development, including poverty reduction and indigenous peoples’ rights. Thus, reducing deforestation and forest degradation can produce a triple dividend – gains for the climate, for biodiversity and for sustainable development.
It was against this background that Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg launched Norway’s International Climate and Forest Initiative during the climate change negotiations at Bali in December 2007, and announced that Norway is prepared to allocate up to NOK three billion a year to efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation in developing countries. The initiative applies to all types of tropical forests.
A project group has been appointed in the Ministry of the Environment. The project group works closely with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and other relevant ministries, and seeks to draw from expertise within relevant national and international organisations and research institutions.
Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries will be a complicated, resource-intensive and costly process. It will be a special challenge to establish structures and capacity for building up monitoring systems and sustainable land use and forest management systems that will also have a long-term effect. Early investments are of crucial importance, and the preliminary phase of the work will be most difficult. It will not be possible to achieve large cuts in emissions everywhere to start with, but Norway is taking a long-term approach.
It will only be possible to achieve large-scale reductions in greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation and forest degradation if these emissions are included in a global post-2012 climate regime. It is therefore important to demonstrate progress in developing good projects and solutions.
In order to reduce emissions from the forest sector in developing countries to the extent possible, we have to take immediate action. This means that we need to begin our efforts before a new climate regime is fully operational. Recent estimates by the Informal Working Group on Interim Financing for REDD (IWG-IFR) indicate that we may reduce global deforestation by 25% before 2015, provided that the necessary funding is made available. Some developed countries, including Norway, have begun to make efforts to finance the reductions of emissions from forests in developing countries. These financial contributions enable multilateral initiatives and developing countries to initiate and intensify their efforts on REDD.
The primary objective of the Norwegian Government’s climate policy is to play a part in establishing a global, binding, long-term post-2012 regime that will ensure deep enough cuts in global greenhouse gas emissions. Norway’s goal is for the average rise in global temperature to be limited to no more than 2°C above the pre-industrial level with the help of such a regime. The Climate and Forest Initiative must give the greatest possible support to efforts to achieve this goal.
Promoting sustainable development and poverty reduction is an overriding objective of Norwegian foreign and development policy and thus an inherent but also overriding goal of the Climate and Forest Initiative, in addition to the climate-related goals listed below.
On this basis, Norway's International Climate and Forest Initiative has the following goals:
- To work towards the inclusion of emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in a new international climate regime. An essential basis for permanent, substantial reductions in greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation and degradation is the inclusion of these emissions in a global regime under the UNFCCC. Using experience gained through the Climate and Forest Initiative, Norway plays a part in the design of a new climate regime, and emphasizes in this connection the importance of substantial transfers of funding from the rich part of the world to developing countries to finance measures to reduce deforestation and forest degradation. A key goal of the initiative is to contribute to the development of a credible system for monitoring, assessment, reporting and verification.
- To take early action to achieve cost-effective and verifiable reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. It is essential for the initiative to establish early action to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries before a global regime is in place under UNFCCC. In the preliminary phase, which is bound to last for some time, it is in many cases necessary to focus on capacity building, and results in the form of emission reductions cannot be expected until later. During this phase, progress is measured against milestones for the capacity building process. Nevertheless, Norway will also focus on emission reductions from the beginning, and emission reduction targets will be used as soon as this is feasible.
- To promote the conservation of natural forests to maintain their carbon storage capacity. Recent research indicates that natural forests store more carbon than planted forests. Conservation of natural forests is also important in maintaining species and genetic diversity, ecosystem services and livelihoods of forest dependent indigenous peoples and local communities. The Congo basin, for example, is home to more than 10 000 plant species, more than 1 000 birds and more than 400 mammals. Some tropical islands have a high proportion of endemic species (i.e. species that occur nowhere else in the world). It is impossible to put an accurate figure on the value of this enormous biodiversity, and we have only just begun to understand ecosystem functions and use values. The tropical forests form a “green belt” around the world, which provides ecosystem services of crucial importance for human society, economy and culture, and offers great potential for the development of medicines and other useful substances.
The challenges related to reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in tropical forest countries are reasonably well known.
Carbon leakage – which refers to a situation where emission reductions in one part of the world are counteracted by rising emissions elsewhere – is a concern at both national and global level. So is the need to ensure that emission reductions in one year are not counteracted by a rise in emissions the year after. There are major scientific and political challenges involved in measuring carbon emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, and in setting reference emission levels.
Tropical forest countries face challenges related to illegal logging and timber trade, as well as governance challenges. Moreover, both economic and other factors are still acting as strong drivers of deforestation
Millions of people live in tropical forests and depend on them for food, animal fodder, fuelwood and building materials. According to the World Commission on Forests and Sustainable Development, 350 million of the world’s poorest people, among them 60 million indigenous people, depend almost entirely for their subsistence and survival on forests - while another billion people depend on the forest as an important part of their livelihoods and as a safeguard against poverty.
It is a major challenge to find ways of ensuring that local communities, including indigenous peoples, can continue to harvest sustainably from the forests, or that alternative livelihoods or paths of economic development are open to them. Indigenous peoples and other local communities are dependent on the species diversity and ecosystem services of natural forests to maintain their way of life, and they also play a crucial role in sustainable use and conservation of forests. It is therefore essential to protect biodiversity and safeguard the interests and rights of indigenous peoples and other local communities.
Addressing all these challenges will be a very demanding process. However, the scale of the challenges can be reduced through a systematic, strategic approach, and corrections can be made as necessary if the action taken is not having the desired effect. The main elements of the strategy for the Climate and Forest Initiative are as follows:
• To play a part in establishing a credible system for monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) of reductions in emissions from deforestation and forest degradation. This includes expertise and capacity for monitoring trends in forest cover and biomass, for collection of data on forest carbon volumes and for analysis of data to provide reports on emission levels. This capacity must be established both at national level in the partner countries, and at international level. The principles established by the IPCC and in negotiations under the UNFCCC form the basis for this work.
• To play a part in establishing a robust, effective and flexible international architecture for efforts to reduce deforestation and forest degradation. Coordination and cooperation at both global and national level is be important, and is be given high priority by the Climate and Forest Initiative, among other things through cooperation with the UN and the World Bank and the Congo Basin Forest Fund (CBFF).
The initiative works towards the establishment of:
o A national coordinating unit for each forest country, preferably at government level. This would be responsible for coordinating efforts to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD), developing strategies, overseeing implementation and liaising with the international support structure.
o An international support programme for each national unit, headed by the appropriate international organisation preferred by the recipient country. This would involve contributions from other international organisations, donor countries, NGOs, research institutions and others to varying degrees, according to comparative advantages. The most important function should be to coordinate international contributions and ensure that REDD initiatives draw on all available international expertise and capacity. NGOs and research institutions can play a particularly important role here.
o A support structure at international level. The support structure might also be given other responsibilities, including knowledge management, systematic communication of information about tested methodologies that can be used in practice, and capacity building within REDD-relevant fields. The support structure must be designed in accordance with the framework established through negotiations under the UNFCCC, and should not anticipate the outcome of the negotiations.
• All recipient countries that become partners of the Climate and Forest Initiative must have the clear political intention of working systematically to reduce deforestation and forest degradation, and must later demonstrate this in practice. This work will include developing and implementing national REDD strategies, addressing all significant drivers of deforestation and degradation, involving indigenous and local communities in strategy development, while protecting their rights and opportunities for development.
• Norwegian and international NGOs and research institutions have been working on climate- and forest-related issues for many years, and have considerable expertise and capacity in this field. Close cooperation with NGOs and research institutions is therefore essential in order to succeed. We systematically cooperate with selected NGOs, both at strategic level and in individual forest countries, and with relevant research institutions at national and international level.
• In most cases, capacity building in the recipient country must be given priority in the preliminary phase. This will include building capacity for monitoring of forest cover and biomass, for measurement of forest carbon volumes, for reporting on emission levels, for policy development and legislation, and for law enforcement. The initiative will also contribute to capacity building at international level. Suitable international institutions, primarily within the UN system, must be given adequate resources so that they can build up the capacity that is needed.
• Support for efforts to reduce deforestation and forest degradation must be performance-based. Credible reference emission levels must be established as soon as possible, and payments must be calculated on the basis of the reductions achieved relative to the reference levels. During expertise and capacity building in the preliminary phase, recipient countries must be judged on their progress in relation to interim milestones. Support will gradually be withdrawn from partner countries that do not achieve these milestones.
• Norway seeks to ensure that this climate and forest initiative acts as a catalyst for contributions from other countries. The scale of the challenges involved in reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation is such that real results will only be achieved if other countries also provide substantial resources.
The principle of national ownership and preparation of strategies at national level is of crucial importance for the success of REDD initiatives. The international community must ensure that support for this work is as consistent, coordinated and effective as possible. Some key elements are described below. Some countries have one or more of these in place already, whereas others must start from scratch. This means that countries’ strategies and the main focus of their efforts will vary, but it must be a condition for REDD partnerships that each country draws up a national strategy and implements it within an internationally acceptable framework.
It is of crucial importance that country strategies are developed through a broad-based, transparent and inclusive process, and that all key actors are given an opportunity to participate. It is also important that all stakeholders who may have an influence and interest in REDD are drawn into strategy development, so that it possible to make use of their different strengths. These may include indigenous peoples, multilateral organizations, NGOs, civil society organizations, and the entire forest sector including plantations.
Important elements of strategy development include:
- establishment of a system for monitoring forest cover and biomass and collecting data on forest carbon volumes, and for reporting on emission levels from deforestation and forest degradation;
- incorporation of sustainable development concerns, including opportunities for economic and social development for the local population, conservation of biodiversity and promotion of respect for local and indigenous peoples’ rights;
- establishment of systems and national plans to prevent carbon leakage and ensure lasting results;
- thorough analyses of the drivers of deforestation and forest degradation, and the best ways of dealing with them;
- institutional and capacity building for national and local authorities, including anti-corruption measures and measures to increase transparency in forest and land use management;
- mechanisms for compensation for ecosystem services
- establishment of the necessary legal, administrative and economic framework for sound, sustainable forest and land use management, and of the necessary capacity to ensure compliance;
- cost effectiveness (maximum possible reduction in emissions per unit of expenditure).
We want our financial contributions to contribute to the development of the REDD agenda through research and the demonstration of possible solutions for REDD (+). In this way, Norway´s International Climate and Forest Initiative aims to support and participate in the development of the international REDD+ agenda and international architecture for REDD+.
Strategic partnerships have been set up with selected NGOs and research institutions. These are intended to promote innovation and to encourage systematic knowledge dissemination and debate on the need for a new climate regime that includes deforestation and forest degradation. Much of this support is channeled through Norad and the outcomes of these reports and investigations continually inform our work.
The Climate and Forest Initiative has supported the development of several reports by internationally recognized research institutions. The findings of these reports have been widely cited, and instrumental in building international consensus on the institutionalization and financing of REDD in the international negotiations. Somewhat based on these inputs from leading researchers and experts in the field, Norway has contributed to the international climate negotiations on REDD under the UN Framework Convention of Climate Change. Norway’s submission to the COP15 meeting included a proposed legal treaty text, and offered a comprehensive and coherent proposal for a REDD+ mechanism.
In 2009, Norway coordinated the work of the Informal Working Group on Interim Financing for REDD (IWG-IFR) which published a report on how REDD may be financed in the short term. The key conclusions of the report are widely referenced – in particular that a 25% reduction in global deforestation can be achieved by 2015 – reducing 7 billion tons of CO2, the equivalent of China’s annual emissions – if EUR 15-25 billion were provided for the period 2010-2015.
Our partnerships with developing countries, such as the working relationship with Guyana and with the Amazon Fund, serves as examples on how REDD financing may be carried out in practice.
The following channels and projects have been established in the course of 2009:
1.Multilateral channels:
If efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation and forest degradation are to succeed, more countries and other actors will have to be involved. One of the best contributions Norway can make is to work towards the establishment of a well-functioning international architecture that will ensure that REDD initiatives are effective and which gives them credibility. This is a valuable contribution in itself, and can also encourage other countries to take part. This is why Norway considers it so important for relevant international actors to coordinate their efforts closely and to establish mechanisms that will ensure effective cooperation and coordination.
The policy for ensuring a coherent international response seems to be giving results. Several of the supported programmes and funds below, such as the UN–REDD Programme, the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility and the Congo Basin Forest Fund (administered by the African Development Bank), are working in close coordination.
The UN-REDD Programme
The UN has established the UN-REDD Programme to coordinate UNEP, UNDP and FAO activities in this field, and to serve as convener for REDD-related activities in the rest of the UN system. The UN-REDD Multi-Donor Trust Fund has been established as a channel for funding.
The UN-REDD Programme coordinates its work with that of the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (below). These initiatives are represented on each other´s policy boards and work closely together at the national levels.
The UN-REDD Programme has an active invlvement of actors such as NGOs and representatives of indigenous peoples. A UN-REDD Programme headquarters has been established in Geneva.
The first phase of UN REDD has involved “Quick Start” actions, with the objectives of developing and ensuring national ownership of national strategies, establishing systems for monitoring forest cover and biomass and reporting on emission levels and general administrative capacity building in selected pilot countries (Bolivia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Indonesia, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Tanzania, Vietnam and Zambia).
To ensure a quick start of the UN-REDD Programme, Norway provided full funding, about USD 52 million, for the first phase of the work. In the course of 2010, Spain and Denmark became donors to the UN-REDD Programme. More donors will be needed at a later stage, and Norway’s aim is to act as a catalyst in this respect. Provided results of the first phase are satisfactory, Norway will continue to channel funds through the UN-REDD Programme, and will use this as one of the main channels for its efforts to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation. However, Norway’s contributions in later phases will have to be channeled to fewer countries, and other donors must therefore be actively encouraged to provide funding.
The Forest Carbon Partnership Facility
The Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF) is hosted by the World Bank and assists developing countries in their efforts to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation. It has dual objectives: to build capacity for REDD+ in developing countries, and to test performance-based incentive payments on a relatively small scale in some pilot countries.
A key task for the FCPF has been to identify what assistance tropical forest countries need to be ready to take part in a future system of positive incentives for REDD. As many as 37 forest countries are members of the FCPF and are drafting national strategies on how the countries may become ready to participate in a results-based REDD regime. Norway has already contributed USD 40 million to this work.
The Forest Investment Program
The Forest Investment Program (FIP) program within the Strategic Climate Fund, administered by the World Bank as one of the Climate Investment Funds, mobilise funds for efforts to reduce deforestation and forest degradation. Once the fund’s framework and mechanisms for coordination with other international initiatives have been established, Norway will consider the totality of contributions. It will be particularly important to evaluate the degree to which the fund will complement UN efforts so that their outcomes are mutually reinforcing, whether relevant recipient countries are showing an interest in the fund, and whether the FIP demonstrates a clear focus on transformational change and a results-based approach to REDD. The same issues will be of decisive importance in deciding whether to allocate further funding for the FCPF. Norway supports the FIP with 50 million USD, and has indicated a possible increased support if the fund is found to comply with the requisites.
The African Development Bank: the Congo Basin Forest Fund
The Congo Basin Forest Fund (CBFF) was established in 2008, and is hosted by the African Development Bank (AfDB). The Fund cooperates closely with authorities, international donors, and civil society. It supports activities that can build up national and local capacity and expertise for sustainable forest management and reduction of poverty in the forest areas of the Congo Basin, which is the second largest rainforest area in the world. In 2009, the fund allocated support to 14 projects in the region. A secretariat for the fund has been established in Tunisia. Norway has committed NOK 500 million to the fund for the period 2008–2010. The UK, which had a leading role in the establishment of the fund, has made a similar commitment. The CBFF is coordinating its work with that of other multilateral initiatives, such as the Congo Basin Forest Partnership, and with the REDD efforts of national authorities in relevant countries.
Guyana’s REDD+ Investment Fund (GRIF)
On November 9, 2009, President Bharrat Jagdeo of Guyana and Norway’s Minister of the Environment and International Development, Erik Solheim, signed a Memorandum of Understanding declaring the two countries’ determination to work together to provide the world with a working example of how partnerships between developed and developing countries can save the world’s tropical forests.
Under the partnership, Guyana will accelerate its efforts to limit forest-based greenhouse gas emissions, and protect its rich rainforest as an asset for the world. Norway will provide financial support to Guyana at a level based on Guyana’s success in limiting emissions, on the condition that certain specific, jointly agreed upon enabling activities are conducted in a satisfactory manner. This will enable Guyana to start implementing its low carbon development strategy (LCDS) on a national scale.
Financial support from Norway will be channelled through a new fund, the Guyana REDD+ Investment Fund (GRIF). Norway and Guyana are currently in discussions with the World Bank for it to act as trustee of the fund, whilst the Government of Guyana will be in charge of implementing the projects financed by the GRIF. The mechanism will ensure full national and international oversight of financial flows. Norway has pledged 30 million USD in 2010, and up to 250 million USD until 2015. Guyana is also a member country of the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility.
Read more about the Guyana-Norway partnership here.
2.Bilateral channels:
As a general rule, bilateral channels will only be used in countries where multilateral initiatives and/or multi-donor cooperation are also in progress, so that the necessary capacity is already in place or being built up. However, some exceptions will be made, generally for two categories of countries. The first is countries such as Brazil that have already made so much progress at national level that Norway can immediately provide performance-based support for the implementation of an established strategy. The second category is countries such as Tanzania, with which Norway has long, broad-based experience of cooperation on natural resource management, and which have already started internationally supported REDD programmes.
Brazil
Brazil is the world’s largest tropical forest country, and has 30% of the world’s remaining rain forest. Rapid deforestation has been a major problem in Brazil for many years and some 18% of the global emissions from deforestation emanate from this country. However, Brazil is also one of the countries that is taking the problem most seriously. The authorities have launched an interministerial plan to reduce deforestation in the Amazon region - the action plan for the prevention and control of deforestation in the Amazon, or PPCDAM - which focuses on agrarian and land use planning; monitoring and control of deforestation; and promoting of sustainable production. This has achieved substantial results in the last few years, and Brazil has allocated large financial and human resources to continue its implementation.
The Brazilian Government has also established the Amazon Fund, which may receive payments from external actors, including other sovereign states as well as NGOs and companies. The Fund provides grants for projects that support the Brazilian authorities’ efforts to reduce deforestation. On Brazil’s own initiative, payments to the fund are performance-related, i.e. linked directly to reductions in deforestation relative to a historical reference level. The reference level will be updated every five years. Further emphasising its political willingness to tackle its deforestation problem, Brazil established ambitious targets to reduce its deforestation towards 2017 in its national climate change plan, which was launched in December 2008. Its targets were further intensified in December 2009. The deforestation level in the Brazilian Amazon region reached record low levels in 2009.
Norway is the first donor to the Amazon Fund and intends to allocate substantial payments, based on performance in terms of reduced deforestation rates, in accordance with the approach taken by Brazil The agreement between Norway and the Amazon Fund manager, the Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES), was signed in March 2009, and Norway’s first contribution to the fund amounted to 700 million NOK for results achieved in 2007 and 2008 Some 123 million NOK of this was transferred to the Amazon Fund in 2009, the remaining amount will be transferred as projects financed by the Amazon Fund are implemented. The five first projects were granted support from the Amazon Fund in late 2009. Based on results achieved in 2009 in terms of reduced deforestation, Norway has allocated 850 million NOK to the fund in 2010.
Norway’s contributions to the Amazon Fund will form part of its broad-based climate policy cooperation with Brazil. A cooperation agreement was formally concluded by President Lula and Prime Minister Stoltenberg when Mr Stoltenberg visited Brazil in September 2008. In addition to support to the Amazon Fund, the cooperation includes a systematic dialogue on climate and forest policy. There will also be cooperation on the technical aspects of monitoring, reporting and verification (including support for monitoring efforts in third countries) and on identifying projects under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) that may be of interest to Norwegian investors.
Read more about Norway and the Amazon Fund
Tanzania
Norway, together with UN-REDD Program, will provide NOK 500 million towards the development and implementation of a national REDD strategy in Tanzania over a five-year period. The bilateral support will inter alia support research and projects on REDD, complimentary to the Tanzanian authorities’ work with REDD in the country. Several Tanzanian organizations and research institutions working on REDD were granted support through bilateral funding in 2009. You may read more about Norway´s support to REDD in Tanzania here.
3.Norwegian and international research institutions and NGOs
REDD+ actions are at a very early stage of development, and involve major challenges and a high level of risk. It is therefore important to improve the knowledge base, and Norway has provided funding for research and development activities in relevant fields. New, innovative approaches are also urgently needed.
Allocations to activities and projects carried out by NGOs and research organizations are administered by Norad through the "Norwegian Climate and Forest Initiative – civil society support funding scheme".
The purpose of this funding scheme is to support REDD+ pilot activities and development of methodologies by civil society organizations, in order to generate input to the climate change negotiations and experiences from REDD+ activities in the field. Critical review of REDD+ from civil society can contribute to the establishment of more robust strategies for reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation.
In 2009 Norad received 173 applications within this funding scheme, and 36 different civil society actors have received a total of NOK 172,9 mill in support for REDD-related initiatives, analysis, policy work and demonstrational projects thus far. Allocations for 2010 have a similar profile, although with additional emphasis on governance and rights aspects of REDD+. An overview of funding to civil society actors within the Climate and Forest Initiative in 2009 is found here (Norad news archive)
Other channels
Funding will primarily be provided through multilateral channels, with certain exceptions as described above. Allocations to the Global Environment Facility (GEF) will be considered if it sets up relevant programmes, and the International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO) is supported with a limited amount on a recent initiative.
A project group in the Ministry of the Environment, Department for Pollution Control, Section for Climate and Energy, has been appointed to implement the Prime Minister’s initiative. The group cooperates closely with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and other relevant ministries, and is drawing on expertise on climate- and forest-related matters in multilateral organisations, NGOs and research institutions. A broad-based interministerial coordinating group has also been appointed.
The members of the project group are as follows:
- Special Adviser
(+47 22 24 58 43, 
) is the director of NICFI.
- Senior Adviser Andreas Tveteraas (office phone +47 22 24 58 97,
) is the acting deputy director of NICFI. In addition, he is responsible for monitoring and reporting systems for emissions and contact with relevant research institutions.
- Assistant Director General Tove Stub (office phone +47 22 24 59 94,
) is responsible for the partnership with Guyana and activities in the Congo Basin and West Africa. Her thematic responsibility is the development cooperation aspects of the initiative.
- Senior Adviser Øyvind Dahl (office phone +47 22 24 58 88,
) is responsible for cooperation with countries in Eastern and Southern Africa. Other responsibilities include the project’s coordination with Norway’s development assistance on agriculture and renewable energy.
- Senior Adviser Marte Nordseth (office phone +47 22 24 57 50,
) is responsible for cooperation with Brazil and coordinates NICFI's work towards Rio+20.
- Adviser Andreas Dahl-Jørgensen (office phone +47 22 24 58 42,
) works on Norway’s cooperation with Indonesia, participation in the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF) and Forest Investment Program (FIP), and issues related to REDD+ financing and the private sector.
- Adviser Gry Asp Solstad (office phone +47 22 24 59 55,
) is contact point for the UN-REDD Programme. She also works with Latin-America except Brazil and Guyana and coordinates the Ministry’s cooperation with Norad’s Climate and forest funding scheme.
- Adviser Marianne Johansen (office phone +47 22 24 60 09,
) is involved in the work in Afrika, the partnership with Guyana, Norway’s participation in the Forest Investment Program (FIP) and contact with the relevant research community.
- Adviser Eirik Brun Sørlie (office phone +47 22 24 60 03
) is involved in cooperation with countries in Eastern and Southern Africa, the international REDD+ partnership, and the REDD+ negotiations under UNFCCC.
- Higher Executive Officer Maarten van der Eynden (office phone +47 22 24 58 89,
) is working on forest ecology, forest- and emission monitoring, and biodiversity.
- Higher Executive Officer Jo-Kristian Stræte Røttereng (office phone +47 22 24 58 84,
) is working on the partnership with NICFI’s initiatives in the Congo basin, and assists the Director General for International Climate Policy.
- Higher Executive Officer
(+47 22 24 58 42) works with Latin America, green growth and sustainable landscapes, and the budget process.
- Communication adviser
(+47 22 24 59 90) is responsible for contact with the media and NICFI's communication activitites.
