The regional workshop “Advancing nature-positive investments: Progress and challenges ahead in the EU’s Eastern Neighbourhood” took place on 9 June 2026 (09:00 – 16:00, CEST). The event was organised within the EU Green Week.
Objectives
The workshop aimed to present the evidence based on ecosystem service values, national targets, and financing needs in the EU’s Eastern partner countries, with a particular focus on forests and other priority ecosystems relevant to nature-positive investment.
It presented findings from four country studies covering Armenia, Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine; discussed financing instruments that can help bridge funding gaps, exchanged national priorities and enabling conditions for investment, and shared international experience relevant to Eastern Partnership countries.
The workshop also facilitated dialogue among policymakers and partners to identify priority recommendations, strengthen regional cooperation, and support the mobilisation of public and private finance for sustainable natural resource management.
Participants
The workshop aimed to bring together government officials from ministries of environment, representatives of EU institutions, international organisations, academia, and civil society organisations.
Background
This workshop was organised under the EU4Environment Programme – Activity 4.4 “Effective strategies for funding natural capital conservation in the Eastern Partnership countries”.
The EU4Environment Programme supports EaP countries in advancing strategic financing for forests and natural resource management (NRM) by assessing the value of forest and other ecosystem services and identifying related financing needs. This work examines the economic, environmental, and social benefits provided by forests and ecosystem services alongside the financial resources required to achieve national and international targets.
The activity results in detailed country reports with practical recommendations to help prioritise support and investment. It also promotes regional collaboration and facilitates knowledge exchange among partner countries and EU Member States.
Presentations:
Georgia: Forests beyond timber: Understanding the multiple values of ecosystems (Ekaterine Kakabadze, Climate Change and Protected Area Expert)
Ukraine: Closing the funding gap in the forest sector and support ecosystem services under conditions of war (Christian Held, Senior Forest Economist, Unique Land Use GmbH and Liubov Poliakova, Forest Policy Expert)
Armenia: How can Armenia close the financing gap for restoration and ecosystem services? (Erik Grigoryan, Environmental Economist and PES Expert, CEO, Environment Group)
Moldova: Balancing self-financing and the funding of ecosystem services in the context of sustainable forestry (Bernd Wippel, European Union Forest Policy Expert, Unique Land Use and Dmitri Galupa, Forest Economist, Moldova)
Nature Finance: Risks and Opportunities in Eastern Europe, Caucasus and Central Asia (Takayoshi Kato, Policy Analyst, OECD)
Nature-based solutions for water management in the Eastern Partnership countries (Yannick Pochon, Project Manager, EU4Green Recovery East Programme)
International experience and transferable approaches to financing ecosystem services (Metodi Sotirov, Senior Researcher and Associate Professor, University of Freiburg and Laqiqige Zhu, Senior Environmental Economist)
Market-based and Private Financing for Ecosystem Services (Laqiqige Zhu, Senior Environmental Economist)