In brief
At COP17 in Yerevan, a marathon of negotiations culminated in the adoption of the Yerevan Pathway, a plan aimed at accelerating biodiversity action from 2026 to 2030. The pathway emphasizes national strategies, monitoring, financing, technology transfer, capacity building, and inclusive participation. COP18 will be held in Quito, Ecuador, in 2028.
In the capital city of Armenia—Yerevan—over 100 countries signed a landmark agreement at the 17th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP17) on Friday’s closing day, amid a marathon of consensus building that began at dusk.
The negotiations stretched for almost 12 hours, starting on Friday night and extending into the early hours of Saturday morning, as delegates pushed common language through heated discussions over financing, subsidies, and the scientific evidence needed to reverse biodiversity loss.
When COP17 President Hambardzum Mate Vosyan—also Armenia’s environment minister—banged the gavel to signal the final decision, a chorus of cheers rolled across the hall, signaling the adoption of key decisions for the first global biodiversity progress review and resource mobilization.
"I think we've achieved more than we could have expected in terms of the diversity of the agenda items, in terms of the importance of those items for many countries and parties, and in terms of the items that were anticipated for a long time that have managed to be approved and adopted,"
Mate Vosyan said.
"It is wonderful that we have faced up to the gaps identified in the global report. We have adopted the Yerevan Pathway, and now we need to follow this pathway towards 2030,"
said Astrid Schomaker, executive secretary of the secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity.
The Yerevan Pathway represents the core of the conference’s outcome, promising a set of guiding principles that aim to accelerate biodiversity action between 2026 and 2030 by addressing gaps highlighted in the global review process.
Strong national biodiversity strategies are a priority, as governments are urged to refine and implement long‑term plans that align with the 23 targets of the Kunming‑Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework adopted in 2022.
Improved monitoring systems will be required to track progress against those targets, with parties expected to share data and best practices to build a more transparent and reliable evidence base.
The Pathway also calls for increased financing, urging both public and private sectors to mobilize resources that match the scale of the challenge and to ensure that financial flows are directed toward measurable outcomes.
Technology transfer and capacity‑building measures are further highlighted, encouraging collaboration among countries to share tools, expertise, and training that can strengthen national implementation capacities.
Inclusive participation by Indigenous Peoples, local communities, women, and youth is emphasized, with the Pathway urging whole‑of‑government coordination and mechanisms that give these groups a meaningful voice in decision making.
Taking Action for Nature was the theme that guided the conference’s agenda, underscoring the urgency for concrete steps to halt and reverse nature loss by 2030.
Despite the breakthroughs, divisions over biodiversity finance, the role of harmful subsidies, and the weight given to scientific evidence remained, underscoring the complex politics that accompany environmental agreements.
The conference concluded by setting the next meeting—COP18—to take place in Quito, the capital of Ecuador, in 2028, extending a two‑year gap before the next global gathering.
With the Yerevan Pathway in place, the international community now faces the challenge of translating broad commitments into measurable, on‑the‑ground actions, a task that will determine whether the 2030 biodiversity targets can be met.
