Utdrag fra artikkelen The Rainforest Initiative: Who is saving whom?
The beginning
It is the year 2007. The last autumn in Norway saw extreme temperatures. The skepticism towards climate
change was about to be abandoned in advantage of a founded fear for a dramatic climate future. Al Gore is
travelling the world with his movie; An inconvenient truth, while the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
(IPCC) is reaching the conclusion that we have to act now to solve the challenges.
The British climate expert Sir Nicholas Stern stresses in his report that this can be done in a cost-effective way. At
the same time, initiatives to curb deforestation are being introduced as one of the best solutions regarding costefficiency – a solution the Norwegian government seems to favour.
As 2007 is proceeding, the Norwegian government is experiencing an increasing pressure from both the
opposition and environmental NGOs to deliver ambitious climate-goals at COP 13 in Bali in December the same
year. However, one man is yet to be convinced – the Norwegian Prime Minister, Jens Stoltenberg. What could
cause Jens Stoltenberg to change his mind right before the COP-meeting in Bali?
One answer to this question can be that the Norwegian rainforest initiative fits quite well into an already wellknown pattern of Norwegian climate and development policy; the solution is not to be found in Norway, but
elsewhere in the world. With this initiative four things are achieved; influence in the global climate policy, an
increase in the aid-budget, fight against poverty reduction and last but not least, a change of focus in the
Norwegian climate debate. The only expenses for Stoltenberg are monetary. However, money has never been a
problem in Norwegian foreign aid.
In the end Stoltenberg changed his mind. On the 13th of December 2007, he ascends the podium at the Bali
International Conference Centre and proclaims that Norway will give up to 3 billions NOK annually to rainforest
conservation. According to Stoltenberg, the required technology is not rocket science and it has been known for
thousands of years: “Everybody knows how not to cut down a tree”. In the Norwegian perception of reality, the
rainforest initiative is passed on as an idealistic Norwegian contribution to save a global common – the rain forest.
The hope about what the Ministry of Environment calls “triple dividend strategy” – a win-win-win-strategy where
climate, biodiversity and pro-poor sustainable development are intermediate goals for the
initiative, is also being raised. It certainly sounds easy. However, today the quote is used as an example on a
curious simplification of complexity.
Kilde: Nilsen, Torbjørn Tumyr; The Rainforest Initiative: Who is saving whom? I Vennepunkt 2/2010, Vennskap Nord/Sør