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Good practice Imported

Sustainable Land and Forest Management in the Greater Caucasus Landscape (Azerbaijan)

Azerbaijan · Zaqatala · See the Azerbaijan profile

Evidence: Descriptive / self-reported Top 69% 40/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

Azerbaijan's Ministry of Ecology, with UNDP and $5.68M in GEF grants plus $11.4M co-financing (2011–2020), restored degraded land and forests in the Greater Caucasus, underpinning the 2019 Bonn Challenge pledge to restore 170,000 ha of degraded land by 2030.

5.68 USD million
GEF grant (2011-2020)
11.4 USD million
Co-financing (2011-2020)
17.08 USD million
Total programme funding (2011-2020)
11 districts
Districts covered (2011-2020)
170,000 ha
Bonn Challenge restoration pledge (by 2030)
100,000 ha
Additional conditional pledge (by 2030 (conditional))

Details

Maturity
Scaling
Promoter
Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of the Republic of Azerbaijan (UNDP-GEF)
Period
2011-2020
Keywords
forestry, land degradation neutrality, climate change, watershed management

Context

Between 2011 and 2020, Azerbaijan's Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources, with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) as implementing agency, ran the Global Environment Facility (GEF)-funded 'Sustainable Land and Forest Management in the Greater Caucasus Landscape' programme (GEF Project ID 4332). The programme combined a $5.68 million GEF-5 grant with $11.4 million in government and partner co-financing -- $17.08 million in total -- to convert unsustainable land-use practices across 11 districts of north-western Azerbaijan's Greater Caucasus mountains.

Objectives

The programme's stated objectives were land degradation neutrality and forest landscape restoration to secure carbon storage and sequestration, watershed integrity and soil protection, and climate-change resilience across a mountainous landscape under pressure from overgrazing, illegal logging and soil erosion.

Activities

The programme was executed in two sequential phases and subjected to independent UNDP terminal evaluations completed in January 2016 and February 2019.

Results

In May 2019, building on the programme, Azerbaijan pledged at the UNECE/FAO Forest Congress for the Caucasus and Central Asia (Issyk-Kul, Kyrgyzstan) to restore 170,000 hectares of degraded land under the Bonn Challenge by 2030, with a further 100,000 hectares conditional on additional funding.

Conclusions

Independently published, hectare-level achieved-versus-target results from the GEF programme itself were not located in public sources at the time of review -- a gap reflected in the evidence scores, which credit the programme's funding, design and government commitment rather than unverified outcome claims.

Implementation
Indicative cost
Medium (€50k–€500k) — $5.68 million GEF-5 grant combined with $11.4 million in government and partner co-financing ($17.08 million total).
Time to results
Medium (1–3 years) — Ran 2011-2020 in two sequential phases; fed into Azerbaijan's May 2019 Bonn Challenge pledge to restore 170,000 ha by 2030.
Staffing & skills
Implemented by Azerbaijan's Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources with UNDP as implementing agency

Conditions for success

  • Executed in two sequential phases with independent UNDP terminal evaluations (Jan 2016, Feb 2019)

Common failure modes

  • Independently published, hectare-level achieved-versus-target outcome results were not located in public sources

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Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

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