Biodiversity conference in Armenia closes with a Yerevan Pathway and the Sevan Guidelines

31 October 2026

The UN Biodiversity Conference, COP17, closed in the Armenian capital with a roadmap called the Yerevan Pathway. With four years still to run, it ranks what must be done to meet the 23 targets written into the Kunming-Montreal framework on biodiversity. Astrid Schomaker, Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity, said nature cannot be protected while its destruction is still being financed. Parties adopted close to 50 decisions on protected areas, forests, wildlife management, invasive alien species, marine biodiversity and synthetic biology. They also agreed the Sevan Guidelines, which set the working rules for a new permanent body for Indigenous Peoples and local communities. Nearly two billion dollars in fresh biodiversity funding was announced, including 560 million dollars from the Global Environment Facility replenishment. The conference president was Hambardzum Matevosyan, and the next meeting, COP18, goes to Ecuador.