Protecting Earth’s Fragile Biodiversity Takes Spotlight at Armenia Talks

Biodiversity losses continue to upend the lives of billions of people whose future prosperity depends on countries taking urgent action to protect our planet, the top UN official leading talks at the UN Biodiversity Conference in Yerevan said on Monday.

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

“In 2022, 196 countries made commitments. But we are all accountable to each other and to future generations. What happens here in Yerevan matters. Billions of people whose lives are being upended by the impacts of biodiversity loss depend on progress being made here in the next two weeks,” said Executive Secretary of the UN Convention on Biodiversity, Astrid Schomaker.

Tapping Into Indigenous Ideas

Insisting that “taking action for nature does work”, Ms. Schomaker called for the “untapped energy and ideas” of Indigenous Peoples and local communities, women and youth to contribute to the decisions made at the talks. “We need even greater engagement from cities, businesses and financial institutions…the science is clear. No nation, no economy, no society is immune from the impacts of biodiversity loss,” she insisted.

The goals of the Convention include tackling the main drivers of biodiversity loss, such as changes in how land and seas are used, invasive species, pollution, climate change and the unsustainable exploitation of species.

Perhaps the Kunming-Montreal framework’s best-known ambition is “30 by 30”: conserving 30 per cent of land and sea by 2030, the deadline for achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

To do this, national action plans must align with international goals, finance must match current needs, and consumption and production should be in accord with “the finite resources of our planet”, Ms. Schomaker maintained.

Why do These Talks Matter?

A core aim of the Yerevan talks – also known as COP17, or the 17th Conference of Parties – is “to turn commitments into measurable progress on the ground”, insisted Armenia’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Paruyr Hovhannisyan.

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

Among the big issues governments will grapple with in Yerevan:

• Taking stock: Countries will conduct the very first global review of collective progress under the framework by presenting their national reports and updated national biodiversity strategies and action plans. 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 the money: The framework calls for at least $200 billion annually from all sources by 2030, including at least $30 billion in international biodiversity finance, according to Armenia’s UN Ambassador, Mr. Hovhannisyan.
• Making the Cali Fund work: This global financial mechanism established under the UN Convention on Biodiversity was agreed at COP16 in Cali, Colombia. Talks at Yerevan aim to advance practical arrangements for the fund, which was designed to collect funds from companies that use digital genetic data and redistribute these monies to protect biodiversity and Indigenous Peoples.
• Tracking progress: Better monitoring, data, capacity and cooperation are needed so countries can measure whether commitments are actually delivering results. 
• Changing the economics: Some of the areas furthest behind require action outside environment ministries, including on finance, business, sustainable consumption and harmful incentives.

The meeting follows warnings from UN chief António Guterres in Yerevan on Friday that more than one million species face extinction.

War on Nature

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

“Every day, humankind saws another branch through the tree of life. Climate chaos, invasive species, overgrazing and overfishing, excessive fertilisers, pesticides, plastics and heavy metals, all these and more are driving the triple planetary crisis of pollution, biodiversity loss and climate chaos,” he said.

The UN chief warned that the world is edging ever closer towards becoming uninhabitable. But he also pointed to international biodiversity action agreed under the Kunming-Montreal framework.

It had inspired action worldwide, Mr. Guterres insisted, noting that since 2022, an additional 1.3 million square kilometres of land and six million square kilometres of ocean have received formal protection.

But “progress is uneven and far too slow” and countries risk falling “well short” of the goal of conserving 30 per cent of the world’s land and sea by 2030, the UN chief said.

This story was originally published by UN News.