When managed on a sustainable basis, a strong, healthy forest sector has a key role to play in the “greening” the economies as outlined in the Rio+20 outcome document. Using wood products to substitute for more carbon-intensive non-renewable materials and fossil fuels enhances that contribution. Additionally, forests perform an essential role in preventing environmental degradation (air and water pollution, soil erosion) and reducing the impact of natural disasters such as landslides, avalanches and flooding. In the UNECE region, the role of forests is particularly acute for countries in transition, and especially in the Caucasus and Central Asia, to address environmental problems like soil erosion, pollution and climate change, which otherwise may impact heavily on communities and their livelihoods. Strengthening of the forest sector will enable countries to gain both environmental and economic benefits. To this end, forest sector policies and institutions need to be strengthened; provision of sustainable forest products need to be expanded including for renewable energy production. There are numerous obstacles to achieving the full potential of the forest sector. Among these are illegal logging, poor governance, overcutting and overgrazing leading to forest degradation, deforestation and severe erosion. These are often compounded by weak information systems as well as obsolete policies and institutions. When the countries of this region gained independence in the early 1990’s, they did not have institutional frameworks in place for managing their forest resources. Unfortunately and for a variety of reasons, the relevant institutions remain fragile and suffer from a lack of staff qualified in policy for sustainable forest management. However, countries in the Caucasus and Central Asia are ready to develop and implement policies which will allow them to properly and sustainably capture the opportunities in the forest sector, in full respect of existing environmental legislation and international commitments. All of them are signatories to the Rio Conventions as well as participating in relevant UN processes which identify forests as a key biome for the mitigation of climate change and the conservation of biodiversity. To address the above mentioned obstacles, the project objective is to strengthen the national capacity of countries in the Caucasus and Central Asia to enhance the contribution of their forest sector to greener economies through sustainable forest management. The project will help countries to respond to key capacity gaps and overcome these development challenges, by providing knowledge, capacity building, training materials and advisory services on: • Strengthening forest sector policies and institutions, to facilitate sustainable forest management’s contribution to a green economy and mitigating climate change; • Developing action plans and implementing sustainable forest management in three pilot countries; • Promoting sustainable forest products, including for bioenergy production. Target groups will be government officials from ministries responsible for forestry and other related institutions. The project will mainly develop capacities at national level but it will also reach out to the local level to ensure that staff from local forest and forest related administrations are trained and advised on how to request further support. This will be achieved through tailored training workshops based on the content used at national level. The UNECE/FAO Forestry and Timber Section will be responsible for leading the project. The project will be implemented through partnerships in the region, drawing on the UNECE and FAO existing regional networks and involving the Resident Coordinator system.