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Grupo de observadores con prismáticos frente a un valle verde con río, bosques y fauna, con una gran montaña nevada al fondo
Valle fluvial con bosques y fauna bajo una montaña nevada, escena alusiva a la protección de la biodiversidad acordada en Ereván. · EPM

Yerevan Pathway sets priorities to deliver the 23 biodiversity targets

COP17 closed in Yerevan with the Yerevan Pathway setting priorities for the 23 biodiversity targets to 2030, nearly 50 decisions, the Sevan Guidelines, and…

--- The context --- At the halfway mark to 2030, a global review found the world off track to meet its biodiversity targets. Against that diagnosis, countries meeting in Armenia agreed on a roadmap to accelerate action for nature during the four years left to deliver the framework they had already adopted. --- The facts --- The COP17 conference closed in Yerevan on Saturday and the agreement was formalised through the Yerevan Pathway, setting priorities to deliver the 23 targets of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. Parties adopted nearly 50 decisions covering protected areas and forests, wildlife management, invasive alien species, marine and coastal biodiversity, and synthetic biology. --- The facts --- After intensive negotiations, parties also agreed the Sevan Guidelines, which set the operating rules for a new permanent body strengthening the role of Indigenous Peoples and local communities in shaping global biodiversity policy. Nearly $2 billion in new funding was announced: $560 million under the latest replenishment of the global environment facility, $500 million through a species recovery alliance, and $330 million for a fund that aims to mobilise private capital for nature. --- The positions --- The executive secretary of the biodiversity convention, Astrid Schomaker, warned in her remarks that nature cannot be protected while its destruction continues to be financed. COP17 President Hambardzum Matevosyan said the two weeks had shown that differences can be bridged and commitments can become decisions. The head of the UN environment programme, Inger Andersen, said environmental multilateralism had prevailed once again and that the compromise reached would support real progress for people and for planet. --- What remains unknown --- The pathway calls for tackling subsidies that harm nature, increasing financial, scientific and technical support for developing countries, aligning national budgets and economic decisions with the framework, and strengthening monitoring and reporting. How each government will translate those calls into its own budget lines has not yet been spelled out. --- Unanswered questions --- How will each government withdraw the subsidies that are harming nature today? Will the promised support reach developing countries in a timely and verifiable way? What real weight will the new Indigenous Peoples body carry when national policies are decided? --- EPM analysis --- The agreement combines money, rules and participation. Without correcting the incentives that finance destruction, no target holds; without the communities who live in these territories, protection stays on paper. The next conference, COP18, will be held in Ecuador, with two years remaining to achieve the targets. 📌 EPM Take: In EPM's view, the Yerevan Pathway is right to put money at the centre of the debate, because protecting nature while financing its destruction was the contradiction holding back the whole global framework. Strengthening Indigenous Peoples and local communities adds a piece that global biodiversity governance had been missing. The demand now must be public follow-up, comparable reporting and effective support for developing countries, so that the nearly $2 billion announced becomes recovered species, cared-for forests and living rivers before 2030 arrives.
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