In brief
Negotiators at COP17 in Yerevan finalized the Yerevan Pathway, a plan that prioritizes accelerating implementation of the Kunming‑Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework’s 23 targets through 2030. Funding commitments totaling nearly $2 billion were announced to support the pathway’s actions, but financing gaps, national policy reform and sustained cooperation remain significant challenges.
Negotiators at the 17th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity in Yerevan concluded on Saturday a joint commitment to the Yerevan Pathway, a plan aimed at accelerating global biodiversity action in the lead‑up to the 2030 deadline of the Kunming‑Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.
The pathway does not set new targets; instead, it focuses on how countries can ramp up effort to meet the 23 targets already agreed upon. Key priorities for the period through 2030 include speeding implementation, broadening national target coverage, strengthening financial and other support, engaging governments and society more widely, and improving monitoring and knowledge.
“Without a rapid acceleration of implementation, the framework’s 2030 targets and mission would not be achieved, putting its longer‑term goals for 2050 at risk,” the conference’s assessment warning the governments, according to Xinhua.
In addition to the pathway decision, negotiators adopted measures covering protected areas, forest biodiversity, sustainable wildlife management, invasive alien species, marine and coastal biodiversity, synthetic biology and other areas.
Nearly $2 billion in new biodiversity funding was announced during the conference. The Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity reported that the funding includes $560 million under the ninth replenishment of the Global Environment Facility and its Global Biodiversity Framework Fund, $500 million through the Species Recovery Alliance, and more than $330 million through the Value Nature Fund.
While the pathway and the funding announcements provide a basis for future action, ongoing challenges remain. Countries face widening gaps between their commitments to protect nature and the action required to fulfil them. Financing gaps, national policy changes and sustained international cooperation will be critical to whether the pathway can close that gap and deliver the needed progress by 2030.
