Project overview:

Forests have the capability to play an essential role in mitigating climate change by sequestering millions of tonnes of carbon dioxide and alleviating the impacts of extreme weather events.

The Caucasus and Central Asia are characterized by a harsh climate and a landscape dominated by mountains and deserts with low level of forest cover. In recent years, forests and forest landscapes have been degrading throughout the region due to unauthorized fuel wood removal, logging for commercial purposes, and overgrazing in forest and wooded lands, among other reasons. Moreover, there is a need to strengthen the capacities of forestry institutions to carry out forest management activities and enforce forest protection effectively.

To address the ongoing degradation, countries in the region pledged to restore over 2.5 million hectares of forest landscape by 2030 at the first Ministerial Roundtable on Forest Landscape Restoration. In order to strengthen partnerships and enhance regional cooperation, they also participated in the Bonn Challenge for the Caucasus and Central Asia, held in Astana, Kazakhstan on 21-22 June 2018.

The project aims to support these commitments by bringing the experience and expertise of Turkey in combating degradation and forest restoration to the countries of the region.

To achieve this objective, the project will implement a pilot activity to identify and showcase state-of-theart methodologies.

The project strategy will be based on four components:

• addressing drivers of degradation and identifying pilot areas;

• capacity development;

• piloting of restoration activities; and

• knowledge sharing and management.

These four components will be based on cross-cutting principles relevant to climate change and gender equality.

Expected outputs:

• identifying degraded forest and other wooded lands in need of restoration in Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan;

• enhancing gender-responsive capacity and knowledge for the prevention of degradation and the restoration of sustainable forest and other wooded lands in recipient countries; and

• establishing pilot sites for the restoration of degraded forests and other wooded lands in Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan.

The project will contribute to addressing the priorities of participating countries identified in the UN Decade for Ecosystem Restoration (2021-2030), the UNCCD Strategic Framework (2018-2020), the UNCCD Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) Target Setting Programme, the UNCCD National Action Programmes and the Bonn Challenge, in particular national commitments announced at the Ministerial Roundtable on Forest Landscape Restoration and the Bonn Challenge in the Caucasus and Central Asia as part of the “Astana Resolution” in June 2018. The project will also represent a step towards achieving Sustainable Development Goal 15 (Life on Earth).