 But national protection of Azeri nature started truly functioning after 2001 when the state budget increased due to new revenues provided by the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline.Within the last four years protected nature areas doubled to is equal to eight percent of the country's territory.The measures taken by the president were applauded by foreign organizations, in fact, President Ilham Aliyev was awarded Germany Mikhail Zhukov Fund's prize for his successful ecological policy on 19 October 2006.