10 July 22014: The seventeenth meeting of the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF) Participants Committee accepted Belize, Sudan and Uruguay into the Partnership. The Partnership now includes 47 countries.

The Participants Committee also approved initial grants for Belize, Madagascar, Paraguay, Sudan, and Uruguay and added to existing grants for Costa Rica, Ghana and Indonesia. In addition to approving more than US$34 million in grants, the meeting provided a forum for the exchange of experiences and reflection on lessons learned.

In particular, the meeting considered successes in Payments for Environmental Services (PES) in Costa Rica, the adoption of the integrated landscape approach to cocoa production in Ghana, and the establishment of a national REDD+ agency in Indonesia.

Participants also addressed capacity building for social inclusion in REDD+ Readiness, future emissions reduction payment agreements as per discussions at the tenth meeting of the FCPF Carbon Fund, and updates from the UN Collaborative Programme on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation (UN-REDD) and Forest Investment Program of the World Bank.

The FCPF Participants Committee is made up of REDD+ countries (14) and financial contributors (14), and is also comprised of observers representing indigenous peoples, civil society, international organizations, the UN-REDD Programme, the UNFCCC Secretariat and the private sector. The Committee, which meets twice a year, is the main decision-making body of the FCPF.

The seventeenth meeting of the FCPF was held from 2-4 July 2014, in Lima, Peru. The meeting followed the tenth meeting of the FCPF Carbon Fund, during which Chile and Viet Nam were selected into the Fund’s pipeline. [World Bank Press Release] [FCPF Participants Committee meeting website] [FCPF Participants Committee] [Forest Policy & Practice article on tenth FCPF Carbon Fund meeting]