About this conference

The Caucasus is a region of extraordinarily rich biodiversity. It encompasses Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia, as well as parts of Iran, the Russian Federation, and Turkey. Many threats and challenges to its biodiversity are common to the entire ecoregion, and can only be addressed on a regional level. Transboundary cooperation in the Caucasus region therefore plays a key role in promoting biodiversity conservation and sustainable development, and can contribute to peace and understanding in this ethnically diverse region.

KfW Entwicklungsbank (KfW development bank) and WWF Germany organised this conference which was held in Berlin on 9-11 March 2006 under the auspices of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). The conference brought together the Ministries of Environment from the Caucasus countries, as well as representatives of international conservation and donor organisations.

Aim of the conference

The conference aimed to strengthen the dialogue between governmental and non-governmental stakeholders in the area of nature conservation and sustainable development in the Caucasus ecoregion. It provided a high-level political platform for governments and international organisations to present activities and to announce commitments towards the implementation of an Ecoregional Conservation Plan (ECP) as a contribution to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).

These commitments underline the efforts of the Caucasus states to implement the CBD and to halt the loss of biodiversity until 2010 according to the Countdown 2010 Initiative. The results of the conference send a strong message to the CBD Conference of the Parties, end of March 2006 in Brazil.

A summarising documentation of the conference [pdf, 413 KB, English] is available for download.