Today NORAD (The Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation) signed an agreement with IDH to support ISLA in three countries to help delink commodity production from deforestation.
The agreement involves funding ISLA with 50 million NOK (approx. 5.3 million euros), to fight deforestation and forest degradation in Liberia, Indonesia and Brazil. These programs, if successful during the inception year, will be scaled up in the period 2017-2020.
Through ISLA, IDH and the Norwegian government aim to de-couple increased agricultural productivity from deforestation, address governance challenges through a multi-stakeholder approach, prepare the ground for investment in agricultural intensification, and introduce production-protection compacts among others.
IDH Executive director, Joost Oorthuizen: “We are delighted to partner with NICFI on cracking the nut of deforestation free value chains. Norway is a front runner in pushing the agenda for REDD+ and combating deforestation world wide, especially in hot spots such as Brazil and Indonesia where IDH is also active. Private sector, public sector and civil society leaders have spoken out on zero net deforestation in 2020 and our joint program will support them in making this actionable.”
Omer van Renterghem of The Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which is the founder and main funder of IDH’s landscape program, is also pleased with the new agreement. “It is wonderful news that the Norwegian government will fund the Initiative for Sustainable Landscapes. Governments need to work together to achieve large-scale sustainability worldwide, and Norway is internationally known to be a front runner in pushing this agenda forward. ”
The program targets private sector corporations, smallholder producers, local, provincial and national governments and local communities. In the next year, the grant will be utilized to – together with partners – establish multi-stakeholder coalitions in the landscapes, draft Green Growth plans with supporting business cases, create the conditions for production-protection agreements and start piloting these. IDH will also create the framework for innovative finance options that de-risk and leverage investment by the financial and private sector, and start building the monitoring framework.
ISLA is already operational in West Kalimantan, Indonesia and Mato Grosso, Brazil, as well as in areas in Vietnam, Kenya, Côte d’Ivoire and Ethiopia.
In Liberia, IDH will work in three landscapes in the northern, eastern and western parts of the country.
See the full press release ( bytes)here.