Project description:
“European Neighborhood and Partnership Instrument (ENPI) East Countries Forest Law Enforcement and Governance (FLEG) II Program” (the “Program”) is aimed to support the participating countries strengthen forest governance through enhancing their forest policy, legislation and institutions, and implementing sustainable forest management models on a pilot basis. The Program will be implemented in seven countries: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine, and the Russian Federation.

The Program builds on initiatives undertaken under the first EU funded FLEG Program. It will be carried out over a four-year period, with end disbursement date of June 30, 2017. The Program is supported by the European Commission contributing to a single-donor trust fund administered by the World Bank (WB). Implementation of the Program is led by the WB, working in partnership with the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).

Objective(s):
To make progress implementing the 2005 St. Petersburg FLEG Ministerial Declaration in the participating countries and support the participating countries commit to a time-bound action plan to ensure its implementation and follow-up activities (regional level).

To review or revise (or establish a time-bound action plan to review or revise) forest sector policies and legal and administrative structures; improve knowledge of and support for sustainable forest management and good forest governance (including the impact of related EU regulations) in the participating countries (national level).
To test and demonstrate best practices for sustainable forest management and the feasibility of improved forest governance practices at the field-level on a pilot basis in all participating countries (sub-national level). 
Main Program activities to be conducted by WWF in Azerbaijan will involve the evaluation of the forest biodiversity and ecosystem functions (scoping study level), exploration of the forest certification potential in the country, promoting sustainable forest management planning and awareness raising of the stakeholders about the importance of sustainable forest management and the roles of the FLEG2 program in this respect.