21 October 2015: Held from 13-16 October 2015 in Brussels, Belgium, the 13th meeting of the Carbon Fund, organized under the World Bank’s Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF), approved seven Emission Reductions Program Idea Notes (ER-PINs) for potential selection into the Carbon Fund pipeline.

Nine countries presented their ER-PINs at the meeting, ranging from reforestation efforts on reclaimed land to a canal project for more sustainable cocoa production. Seven of them were selected, including: Côte d’Ivoire’s program idea, aiming to address the major agricultural drivers of deforestation in an area including the country’s last remaining forest block; Madagascar’s program aimed at connecting forests, land use and rural development into policy; Mozambique’s proposal focusing on reforestation and biodiversity conservation in the Zambézia province; the Dominican Republic’s proposal addressing forest fire management and extensive slash and burn agriculture and livestock farming; Nicaragua’s proposal focusing on reducing deforestation, contributing to forest-based adaptation and supporting rural development in poor areas; Fiji’s program building on pilot projects aiming to boost communities’ income as an incentive for sustainable forest management and forest protection; and Lao PDR’s proposal aiming to tackle the primary drivers of deforestation, including uncontrolled logging, commercial agriculture and new infrastructure, as well as address land tenure issues. The next step for the seven countries selected will be to sign a Letter of Intent.

Through the Carbon Fund, the FCPF makes incentive, performance-based payments to developing countries that have made significant progress in REDD+ readiness by remunerating them in accordance with negotiated contracts for verifiably reducing emissions more than in the reference scenario. [Meeting Webpage] [World Bank Blogpost on the Meeting] [FCPF Website]