The “Ecoregional Nature Protection Programme for the Southern Caucasus” (BMZ/ KfW/ GIZ) aims to preserve the biodiversity of the region and harmonise resource protection objectives and instruments through cross-border cooperation among the national environmental actors in Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan.

The Transboundary Joint Secretariat (TJS) was established as a component of the Ecoregional Programme in order to support the ministries responsible for nature protection with promoting regional harmonization, sector development, transboundary mechanisms and information exchange for nature conservation, and with state of the art operational instruments for nature conservation policies, strategies and instruments for protected areas.

The primary objective of the third phase of TJS is to further develop the Caucasus Eco-Regional Conservation Plan (ECP) and to improve its implementation status. A secondary objective is to contribute to crisis prevention and conflict mitigation in the South Caucasus through regional cooperation in the nature conservation sector.