The Caucasus and Central Asia (CCA) region – which includes Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan – has been severely impacted by climate change and land degradation. Yet, the countries of the region have committed to protect their forest and restore the degraded landscapes during the Ministerial Roundtable on Forest Landscape Restoration and the Bonn Challenge (held in Kazakhstan in 2018). The region’s pledge under the Bonn Challenge is to restore about 3 million ha of degraded land by 2030. The Astana Resolution, adopted during the Ministerial Roundtable in 2018, declares the commitment of the Caucasus and Central Asia countries to scale up forest landscape restoration activities and strengthen partnerships and regional cooperation to this end.

On November 22, the Joint UNECE/FAO Forestry and Timber Section organised a meeting with experts from the countries of the region on “Achievements – challenges – aspirations for forest landscape restoration in the Caucasus and Central Asia”. This meeting provided a platform for exchange on the progress in forest landscape restoration since the Ministerial Roundtable.

In the meeting, the experts discussed opportunities to develop policy guiding principles and national strategies on forest landscape restoration and were informed about the development of a knowledge exchange platform to promote forest landscape restoration activities in the Caucasus and Central Asia.

This meeting was held as part of the 6th European Forest Week, celebrated during Foresta2021 - the Joint Session of the UNECE Committee on Forests and the Forest Industry (COFFI), and the FAO European Forestry Commission (EFC).

Participation in the meeting was by invitation only and limited to national experts hailing from the Caucasus and Central Asian countries and relevant international organizations.

More information about Joint UNECE/FAO Forestry and Timber Section’s work on forest landscape restoration can be found at https://unece.org/restoration-forests-and-landscapes-unece-region