Rural livelihoods in the Kyrgyz Republic are closely linked to herding activities. Only 5% of the country is covered by forests including mountain coniferous forests, almond and pistachio forests and the world’s largest walnut forest. During the last century the forest area has been decreased to roughly half its size due to unsustainable fuel-wood collection, illegal logging and uncontrolled ruminant grazing. In order to conserve the remaining forests and to rehabilitate degraded watersheds UNIQUE was invited to assist the identification of climate protection measures in the land use sector (forestry and grassland management) and to advise on appropriate climate finance mechanisms for integrating Payment for Environmental Services (PES) and Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+).

• Support of national consultants to assess existing climate finance experiences in Kyrgyzstan.
• Identification of the most promising climate finance instruments in the land use sector.
• Collecting international climate finance experience for forestry and climate-resilient rangeland management.
• Preparation of a national conference on developing land-based climate finance mechanisms in Kyrgyzstan.
• Sharing international lessons learned in climate financing forestry and grassland management.