On Tuesday, May 8, the Governor of Huánuco and current President of the Amazon Interregional Council, Rubén Alva, and the Governor of San Martín, Víctor Noriega, met with GCF Task Force Project Director Colleen Scanlan Lyons to strengthen integration of the Governors’ Climate and Forests (GCF) Task Force in Peru and discuss regional approaches to engaging indigenous peoples and accessing finance for innovative initiatives to reduce deforestation.
During the meeting, the GCF Secretariat discussed the ongoing process of re-structuring the GCF Task Force Country Coordinator role in other countries. In both Brazil and Indonesia the GCF Task Force is shifting to a structure where individuals, rather than institutions, carry out the role of country coordinator. The Governors highlighted that in the context of Peru, direct communication channels are required and additional human resources are needed from the secretariat and country coordinator. Adjustments to the coordination structure in Peru will be made in the coming months to ensure that the GCF Task Force is recognized as an alliance of subnational governments with a broad network of national and international support.
GCF Task Force Governors also highlighted the importance of promoting regional platforms such as the Amazon Interregional Council (CIAM for its acronym in Spanish) and the Platform of Northern Forests Peru. These platforms play a critical role in supporting political changeover and will be integral in the transition to new regional administrations in Peru, following regional elections in 2018. The GCF Task Force in Peru discussed their priority to provide support to institutionally strengthen both CIAM and the Platform for Northern Forests, and to develop a strategy to support knowledge transfer between outgoing and incoming administrations. GCF Task Force members also confirmed their high-level participation in key forums such as the Oslo Tropical Forest Forum, ExpoAmazónica 2018, and the GCF Task Force 2018 Annual Meeting.
The topic of funding played another key role in the meeting, as GCF Task Force members discussed emerging opportunities including proposals which had been submitted to support the development of new jurisdictional strategies and investment plans through the GCF Task Force’s new partnership with the United Nations Development Programme. The Governors then learned about opportunities for input on a newly created “Innovation Fund” which will launch later in 2018 and already has USD5 million in seed funding. The fund will support pioneering initiatives to reduce tropical deforestation at scale, and member governments of the GCF Task Force will contribute to the design of the new funding mechanism by May 31.
Finally, the Secretariat and GCF Task Force Governors discussed “Guiding Principles for alliances between subnational governments, indigenous peoples and local communities”, which will formalize approaches for engaging indigenous peoples and local communities in jurisdictional initiatives to reduce tropical deforestation. GCF Task Force members will formalize a working group around this topic to advance the initiative ahead of the GCF Task Force’s Annual Meeting in San Francisco in September.