Norway’s government - through the Norwegian International Climate and Forest Initiative - has pledged approximately 10% of its annual development co-operation budget, or more than USD 500 million, to REDD+. According to Jonathan Lash, co-author of an independent strategic evaluation of the Norwegian REDD+ initiative: “If Norway had not made this commitment, progress on REDD+ would likely be moving at the same slow pace as other components of the international climate negotiations, and fewer of the technical and conceptual challenges would be resolved” (Lash and Dyer, 2014). These are most notably the UN-REDD programme, co-hosted by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the United Nations Environment Programme, the United Nations Development Programme and the World Bank’s Forest Carbon Partnership Facility.