India and Nigeria Join Biodiversity Leaders at COP17 in Armenia
Bhupender Yadav and Balarabe Lawal joined global leaders in Yerevan to review progress on the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework and mobilize conservation funding.
Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Bhupender Yadav arrived in Yerevan, Armenia, on October 27 to participate in the high-level segment of the 17th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP17). Minister Yadav intends to present India's achievements in biodiversity conservation and discuss the implementation of Access and Benefit-sharing across bilateral and multilateral forums.
The conference, which began on October 19, serves as the first global review of the 2022 Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. While the United Nations noted progress in expanding protected areas, it cautioned that current efforts are insufficient to meet the goal of conserving 30 percent of the world's land and oceans by 2030. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for accelerated protection of ecosystems against pollution and climate change.
Other international delegates, including Nigeria's Minister of Environment Balarabe Lawal, arrived to address barriers to implementation. Minister Lawal presented $50,000 Rapid Deployment Mechanism grants to the Nigerian Conservation Foundation to support 30x30 targets. Despite progress on gender, education, and invasive species during the first week, delegates remain divided over the redirection of environmentally harmful agricultural subsidies and the implementation of the Cali Fund for digital sequence information.
COP17 President Hambardzum Matevosyan reported the mobilization of over $1.8 billion from governments, investors, and philanthropic organizations to support biodiversity action.
