Nepal is among the first developing countries which have been selected by the World Bank as a member of the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF), an innovative approach to financing efforts to combat climate change. Nepal will receive initial funding from FCPF to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD).

Altogther 14 developing countries were selected including six in Africa (the Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Madagascar); five in Latin America (Bolivia, Costa Rica, Guyana, Mexico, Panama); and three in Asia (Nepal, Lao PDR, and Vietnam).

The FCPF aims  to reduce deforestation and forest degradation by compensating developing countries for greenhouse gas emission reductions.  The partnership, approved by the World Bank Board of Executive Directors on September 25, 2007, became functionally operational on June 25, 2008. 

The FCPF now has 14 developing and 9 industrialized countries members. The industralized countries, which include Australia, Finland, France, Japan, Norway, Spain, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States, have committed to contribute about US$82 million to the FCPF.  More contributions from the public and private sector are expected in the coming months.

The grant money being provided to the first 14 developing countries in the FCPF will help them to prepare for future systems of positive incentives for REDD, in particular by establishing emissions reference levels, adopting REDD strategies, and designing monitoring systems.  Developing countries have expressed a strong interest in participating in the FCPF and it is expected that more countries will receive support in the coming months.

At their meeting last December in Bali, the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change agreed to start demonstration activities on REDD.  The FCPF, which was announced by the World Bank at the Bali Conference, will help to finance some of these demonstration activities.

Source: World Bank Press Release