Oslo Climate and Forest Conference announced, website created

The Norwegian Government has established a website to provide information regarding the upcoming Oslo Climate and Forest Conference, scheduled for 27 May. The site's home page includes a video presentation from Norway's Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, in which he defines the Conference's aim as the creation of "a global partnership on deforestation." The site also includes an Overview of the Conference as well as a background document titled "What we could achieve at the Oslo Climate and Forest Conference."

The new website stands in stark contrast to the almost total lack of publicly available information preceding last month's Paris Conference, which was the immediate precursor in what has become known as the 'Oslo-Paris process'. This new openness may be seen as a response to criticism of the process that has emerged in recent days from NGOs, 40 of which issued a statement complaining that the process lacked  transparency and indigenous participation.

The approach also seems aimed at deflecting a separate criticism that has been directed both at the Oslo-Paris process, and more broadly at the Copenhagen Accord, i.e., their very existence outside of the official UN negotiating process. In this light, Prime Minister Stoltenberg, in his video statement, pointedly notes:  "This partnership must supplement and inspire, not compete with, the UN negotiations." Overall, this new openness and emphasis on supplementing the UN negotiations  appear to be positive steps in establishing a strong global partnership for REDD.