Protecting the earth’s fragile biodiversity was at the forefront of talks in Armenia

The aim of the talks in the Armenian capital is to assess progress so far and establish an agreed blueprint for the protection of biodiversity known as Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Frameworkadopted four years ago.

“By 2022, 196 countries made commitments. But we are all responsible to each other and to future generations. What happens in Yerevan matters. Billions of people whose lives have been disrupted by the impacts of biodiversity loss depend on the progress achieved here in the next two weeks,” said Executive Secretary of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, Astrid Schomaker.

Leverage original ideas

Insisting that “taking action for nature will pay off”, Ms Schomaker called for nature’s “untapped energy and ideas”. IIndigenous Peoples and local communities, women and youth to contribute to the decisions taken at the talks. “We need greater involvement from city governments, businesses and financial institutions… the science is clear. No country, economy and society is immune from the impacts of biodiversity loss,” he stressed.

The objectives of the Convention include addressing the main causes of biodiversity loss, including changes in land and ocean use, unsustainable exploitation of species, climate change, pollution and invasive species.

Perhaps the most well-known ambition of the Kunming-Montreal framework is “30 times 30”: conserve 30 percent of land and sea by 2030, the UN’s deadline for achieving it Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

To do this, national action plans must be aligned with international goals, funding must match current needs, and consumption and production must match “our planet’s limited resources”, stressed Ms. Schomaker.

Why is this conversation important?

The core objectives of the Yerevan negotiations – also known as COP17, or COP17^th Conference of the Parties – is “to turn commitment into measurable progress in the field”, stressed the Permanent Representative of Armenia to the UN, Paruyr Hovhannisyan.

“We want COP17 to send a clear political signal that tackling biodiversity loss requires coordinated action by governments, international organizations, the private sector and civil society,” he said. UN News. “This means strengthening implementation, mobilizing adequate resources, and improving monitoring and accountability.”

Among the major issues the government in Yerevan must face:

• Taking stock: Countries will do First global review collective progress within this framework by presenting their national report and updating the national biodiversity strategy and action plan. This will show what has been achieved since 2022 and where faster action is needed.
• Closing the implementation gap: The question is how to translate national targets and plans into measurable results on the ground.
• Finding money: This framework requires at least that $200 billion per year from all sources by 2030including at least $30 billion in international biodiversity funding, according to Armenia’s Ambassador to the UN, Mr. Hovhannisyan.
• Make Dana Cali Work: This global financial mechanism was founded on United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity agreed at COP16 in Cali, Colombia. The talks in Yerevan aim to advance practical arrangements for the fund, which is designed to collect funds from companies that use digital genetic data and redistribute those funds to protect biodiversity and Indigenous Peoples.
• Tracking progress: Better monitoring, data, capacity and cooperation are needed so countries can measure whether these commitments are actually producing results.
• Changing economy: Some of the most lagging areas require action outside the environment ministry, including in the areas of finance, business, sustainable consumption and perverse incentives.

The meeting follows a warning from UN Secretary General António Guterres in Yerevan on Friday that more than one million species face extinction.

War on nature

In his call to end the “war on nature”, the UN Secretary General called on governments, businesses and society to accelerate efforts to protect biodiversity for future generations.

“Every day, humanity sees another branch on the tree of life. Climate chaos, invasive species, overgrazing and overfishing, excess fertilizer, pesticides, plastics and heavy metals, all this and more are causing a triple planetary crisis of pollution, loss of biodiversity and climate chaos,” he said.

The UN Secretary General warns that the world is getting closer to becoming uninhabitable. But he also referred to international biodiversity actions agreed under the Kunming-Montreal Framework.

This has inspired action around the world, Guterres stressed, noting that since 2022, an additional 1.3 million square kilometers of land and six million square kilometers of ocean have received formal protection.

But “progress is uneven and too slow” and many countries risk falling short of the goal of conserving 30 percent of the world’s land and oceans by 2030, the UN chief said.