From 23-30 April, the National Facilitators and leadership teams of all five IRI country programs from Brazil, Colombia, DRC, Indonesia and Peru met together with representatives of Rainforest Foundation Norway (RFN), Norway’s International Climate and Forest Initiative (NICFI), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), UNEP-World Conservation Monitoring Centre, and Religions for Peace to share lessons learned and best practices from the implementation of the Interfaith Rainforest Initiative in their respective national contexts. The learning exchange, held in São José dos Campos, São Paulo, Brazil, included a scientific immersion visit for all the IRI teams at the National Center for Monitoring Natural Disasters and Alerts (CEMADEN) and the National Institute for Space Research (INPE), followed by four days of workshops and exchanges on best practices from each country on working with religious leaders and faith-based organizations on awareness raising, on-the-ground mobilization, and political advocacy for the protection and restoration of tropical forests.
