Liveblogging the Oslo Climate and Forest Conference

Some of you may remember that I "liveblogged" REDD happenings at COP-15. Even though I've just spent the last 24 hours traveling home from Kinshasa, I've decided to try to do the same for the Oslo Climate and Forest Conference, which is aiming to set up a 'REDD Plus Partnership.' That means that over the next 48 hours or so, I will be updating this post with frequent reports concerning the meeting, analysis, links to reactions from around the web, etc. Just to be clear, by 'Liveblogging', I am referring to the frequent updating of a single post during the event; I am not, as much as I might like to be, actually attending the meeting. All times shown are GMT+1, i.e., Oslo time zone. Links to Live Feeds as well as recorded sessions after the fact are here.

29 May

9:50 AM: The Partnership document, minus annexes, is now available here.

28 May

3:35 PM - Video of the entire Conference is now available on the Conference website

12:40 PM - The final version of the Partnership Agreement has yet to emerge onto the web, but the following set of operational measures, constituting Appendix II, Operational Measures, does appear to be agreed and final:

"Consistent with the above, the Partners decide to immediately initiate the following list of measures, which could in the future be expanded by the Partners as appropriate:

• Establish a voluntary, publicly available REDD+ Database of REDD+ financing,actions and results, to improve the transparency and coordination of REDD+ actions and support. The Facility Management Team of the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility and the UN REDD Programme Team are jointly requested to expeditiously propose a design for the database, in collaboration with Partner countries and other stakeholders, for deliberation at our next Partnership meeting, ensuring continuity with and building on the initial data collection effort launched by Australia, France and Papua New Guinea.  
• Initiate efforts to identify and analyze gaps and overlaps in financing and take steps to address them.  
• Share lessons on our REDD+ initiatives and share best practices regarding significant REDD+ actions and financing, practical experiences regarding safeguards, multi-stakeholders consultations and benefit sharing mechanisms. 
• Promote and facilitate cooperation among Partners including South-South partnerships and regional REDD+ networks as well as among multilateral and bilateral REDD+ initiatives. Take the necessary measures to ensure that the REDD+ Partnership is transparent and allows relevant stakeholders to comment in a timely way.  
• Prepare and agree a detailed forward work program for the Partnership, taking into consideration comments submitted by stakeholders on the interim REDD+ partnership. The program will include the following elements:  

o   Workshops and formalized information exchanges to share lessons learned and
best practices.
o   Facilitate discussion on the effectiveness of REDD+ initiatives and formulate
concrete recommendations for targeted improvements to multilateral
initiatives.
o   Proposed schedule of future partnership meetings.
o   Determine the duration of the term for the co-chairs as well as specifying their
role and method of selection.
o   Modalities for stakeholder participation in our efforts (stakeholders are invited
to make proposal for such modalities in advance of the next meeting).
o   Development of guidelines and modalities for:
      * The provision of secretariat services for the partnership by the FCPF
FMT and UN-REDD Programme Secretariat, under oversight of the co-
chairs on behalf of the partner countries (as described in Section 5); and  
      * Determining any specific tasks (as described in section 5) that could be
undertaken by particular countries and other organisations for the
Partnership, if agreed by the Partnership.
o   Consider proposals to effectively mobilize, deploy and facilitate enabling
institutions, where relevant, in developing countries to better channel finance
and technology for REDD+ actions."

The above list represents the key actions to be undertaken under the Partnership.

9:50 - The Norwegian Government has issued a Press Release regarding yesterday's Conference: "Agreement on Financing an d Quick Start Measures to Protect Rainforest." The Press Release provides a link to a page that is supposed to contain "the full text of the outcome document of the Conference"; however, the document is still not there... This may explain a certain lack of reports and analyses related to the Conference. The main articles published online so far about teh Conference include this article from the Associated Press and this from the Guardian.

27 May

4:30 PM: Well, this didn't work out so well. As far as I could tell, there was a problem with the live feed of the afternoon session (I also tuned in a bit late, which may have been part of the problem). In any case, neither the video of the afternoon session, nor the final Partnership document, seem to be available at present. My plan is to wait until these are both online, and then either continue this 'not-so-live' blog or prepare a separate summary of the results of the Conference. Ah, the joys of liveblogging...stay tuned...

LUNCH BREAK...

12:40 PM - Australian presentation, describing an important survey of REDD activities that they have supported (I will link to this later). Republic of Congo (RoC) is now speaking (in French), having been introduced as a country where deforestation is being reduced. He refers to PFLEGT process being undertaken in RoC with EU cooperation. He is also emphasising the critical linkage between forests, REDD,biodiversity and broader challenges of sustainable development.

12:25 PM - Some technical difficulties caused me to miss most of the Japan and China presentations. US speaker has just described US support across three objectives: 1) to demonstrate REDD readiness; 2) to demonstrate that REDD works, i.e., not just  to design programmes, but to demonstrate activities on the ground, scalable approaches; 3) to work towards the design of a REDD architercture to deliver REDD plus outcomes. US will fund, through both mutilateral and bilateral contributions, including FCPF, additional funding for GEF, as well as bilateral through the EPA and the US Forest Service. 

12:10 PM - African Union, 'New' UK Government and European Union have all given brief presentations. EU speaker detailing their contribution: 220 million Euros ongoing support, 200 million new support through 2013, including call for proposals this year. EU Commission is currently preparing a database regarding this support. She refers to similar initiatives encouraged in the recent meeting in St. Pertersburg, where REDD was seen as a  model. Urges that REDD Plus be further agreed as part of Cancun conclusions..

11:55 AM: Got it!! Helen Clark, UNDP Administrator is speaking now, livestreaming here. She is highlighting the fact that the REDD-Plus Partnership may be providing a model for cooperation in other climate change areas.

11:45 AM - A tentative list of participants to the meeting is provided here. It includes eight Heads of State (Denmark, Gabon, Guyana, Indonesia, Kenya, Norway, Papua New Guinea, Republic of Congo) and one Prince (HRH the Prince of Wales, who earlier gave a Keynote address)

11:30 AM - While we figure out a certain lack of streaming, this seems like a good opportunity to direct you to some previous posts of mine on the Oslo-Paris process:

• Indonesia and Norway set to agree on $1 billion REDD deal
• Getting ready for Oslo
• Oslo Climate and Forest Conference Announced, website created
• NGOs criticize Oslo-Paris process
• Further details from 11 March Paris Conference

11.15 AM - Starting out a bit confused here: the Conference home page has a link indicating that "Live streaming of the Conference will be available here on 27 May." Following that link brings you to a page with several You Tube videos but no streaming video of the Conference. Hmmm, somebody's having technical difficulties...Will keep looking.