Established goals of NICFI include the following:

1. The inclusion of emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in a new international climate regime
2. To take early action to achieve cost-effective & verifiable reductions in greenhouse gas emissions
3. To promote conservation of natural forests in order to maintain their carbon storage capacity

To ensure effective implementation of the initiative, the Evaluation Department for the Norwegian Agency for International Development (Norad) opted for a real-time evaluation for “rapid learning, to give advice at an early enough stage for changes in implementation to be feasible and to provide timely information to the international community engaged in REDD+ and climate change issues.”