The objective of the project is to strengthen the national capacity of five countries in the Caucasus and Central Asia (Armenia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan) to develop national criteria and indicators (C&I) and reporting or accountability systems for sustainable forest management (SFM). Most of the countries in the region are ‘low forest cover countries’, struggle with degradation of the limited natural resources due to deforestation, illegal logging and extensive grazing. The countries do not regularly monitor the status of forests, and lacking a holistic approach to link forests to sustainable development or development towards a green economy. Due to limited monitoring and assessment of the forests including socio-economic aspects, the importance of the forest sector is continuously neglected in policy development. The majority target countries are not part of international processes on criteria and indicators for sustainable forest management, and, therefore, their capacities for reporting need to be strengthened starting from national level. The project will provide knowledge, capacity-building, training materials and advisory services for defining the scope and relevance of the information that is needed for the implementation of sustainable forest management at national level to support evidence-based policy making. The project will develop national criteria and indicators for sustainable forest management for beneficiary countries. The criteria and indicators can be used for monitoring the status and trends in the forest sector and eventually monitoring the progress towards sustainable development goals. The key project stakeholders are government experts from national forest agencies, research institutes, forest related ministries and NGOs. In addition, the key partners include other international organizations or initiatives already operating in the countries (e.g. FAO, GIZ, UNEP, GEF). The implementation of the project will be led by experts from UNECE/FAO Forestry and Timber Section. The project is expected to support the capability of the countries to actively participate in international processes related to forests, and contribute to the sustainable development of the sector towards a green economy. National criteria and indicators for sustainable forest management will serve as a tool to communicate the relevance and importance of forests to environment, economy as well as society at national, regional as well as international level.