Norway in the forefront of rainforest conservation: Full text of the interview with Hans Brattskar

mongabay: What led Norway to identify forests as a means to reduce greenhouse gas emissions?

Brattskar: The main reason for why the government of Norway initiated our work with REDD is of course that emissions from deforestation and forest degradation measure up to almost one-fifth of total greenhouse gas emissions. The Norwegian government realized REDD was a field which needed leadership in order to kick start the process, and where Norway, by making significant initial contributions, could be catalytic in the sense that we could start building the international framework needed to make it easier for other countries to follow.

Norway is a forest-nation and several Norwegian NGOs are involved in work with tropical forest countries, therefore it was natural that this became a focused topic in the country. Our main goals are to include emissions from deforestation and degradation in a new climate regime and to reduce emissions from forests—but we also recognize that this may have added value in terms of protecting biodiversity, strengthening indigenous people's interests and improving local livelihoods.

mongabay: What are Norway's principle concerns with REDD in terms of the challenges that need be overcome to make it a reality?

Brattskar: There are of course several challenges. The drivers behind deforestation are strong and to find ways within each country to reduce the deforestation is probably the main challenge. Another challenge is to establish funding mechanisms for REDD to that generate sufficient funds to make REDD possible at a scale that really matters to combat climate change and to provide the developing countries with long-term, predictable compensation for their REDD-achievements. REDD is recognized as a cost effective and relatively fast way to reduce emissions, but as we like to say: that does not mean it is neither cheap nor easy. Our main goal and challenge is the inclusion of REDD in a future climate regime, in a form that ensures cooperation and predictable financing for REDD in developing forest countries.

REDD financing should in the future be based on results based compensation - that is, developed countries should provide compensation to tropical forest countries based on reduced or limited emissions. I believe key words here are coordination and verification. The REDD efforts need to be coordinated, and the results must be verifiable. One challenge is to build systems for measuring, reporting and verifying (MRV) emission reductions. We are convinced that it is now technically possible to monitor deforestation and forest degradation with satisfying precision. But it will take a lot of investments and capacity building to establish national MRV-systems in many developing countries.

It is also important to ensure a coordination of REDD efforts. We believe the multilateral institutions, like the UN, the World Bank and the African Development Bank should play important roles in this coordination. The efforts must be anchored at a national level, based on inclusive, holistic, multi-stakeholder national strategy building and implementation processes - and the national governments must cooperate with an international organization such as the UN, the World Bank or the African Development Bank.

It is important that REDD efforts are not fragmented, and we feel that we are doing great progress in this field. The World Bank and the UN are for example working together in an extraordinarily well coordinated way on REDD.

Our main goal and challenge is of course to include REDD in a future climate regime – in order to ensure cooperation and predictable financing for REDD in tropical forest countries.

mongabay: Is Norway is finding support for REDD from other industrialized governments?

Brattskar: In addition to our contributions to the World Bank's Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF), which is also supported by a number of other countries, Norway is financing the first phase of the United Nations' REDD program which is run by the UN agencies of UNEP, FAO and UNDP. In the long run, this needs to be supplemented by funding from other donors. We do not want this to be seen as a 'Norwegian project'. One main reason for establishing the multilateral UN REDD program is for other countries to be able to easily fund REDD. It is also important that REDD is included in the climate regime after 2012. We will not be able to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation through fragmented approaches.

So far, Britain is funding the Congo Basin Forest Fund together with Norway, and Germany providing significant support inter alia to forest conservation through its international climate initiative. Other donor countries also show great interest in REDD.

We think it is important to underline that REDD is more than development aid, and more than combating climate change. It might seem ambitious but we strongly hope that the work with reduced emissions from deforestation and forest degradation can create deep, substantial, lasting partnerships between developed and developing countries to help put the latter on the path to genuine, sustainable, low-carbon development.

http://news.mongabay.com/2009/0319-norway_forests.html