Policy window entrepreneurship: the backstage of the world's largest REDD plus initiative

Although much has been written about policy windows and policy entrepreneurship, less attention has been given to how policy windows are actually constructed and utilised, how public interest organisations can play decisive roles in such processes, and their motivation for doing so. Drawing on the emergence of Norway's International Climate and Forest Initiative, this case study demonstrates how two environmental nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) utilised a policy window by joining forces and linking their core issues, redefining one major environmental issue - rainforests - as a solution to another - climate change. The decisive event in the NGOs' favour was a political battle over a cross-party parliamentary climate settlement - an initiative strongly advocated by one of the NGOs a few months earlier, thus making this actor both a producer and user of the policy window. The result was the establishment in record time of the world's largest donor-side REDD+ initiative.