About Us

The Transboundary Joint Secretariat (TJS) for the Southern Caucasus facilitates cooperation in the field of biodiversity conservation between the three Southern Caucasus Countries - Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan - in the framework of the German Government's Caucasus Initiative.

The work that we do is aimed at achieving five outcomes:

• New protected areas established in the three countries;
• Shared understanding between the countries of problems that affect nature protection;
• Adoption of regional approaches to regional problems;
• Regional and national policies and programmes which support the vision of the Caucasus Ecoregional Conservation Plan;
• Improved biodiversity conservation and nature protection practices.

Funding for the TJS activities is provided by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) via KFW Development Bank. The TJS is being implemented by Osterreichische Bundesforste (ÖBf) AG, Consulting of Austria and GITEC Consult of Germany under a contract with KfW. We have a regional office in Tbilisi and country offices in Baku, Tbilisi and Yerevan. Our permanent staff are a regional team leader and regional advisor and in each country a country coordinator and a national expert seconded to the TJS by the countries' environment ministries. We are supported by a programme director in each of the ministries.