The world has agreed on a plan to protect nature, but with fewer than half of assessed national biodiversity targets on track, governments are heading into a critical global summit under pressure to prove that their promises are translating into real change.
The 17th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP17), scheduled for October 19–30 in Yerevan, Armenia, will assess progress towards the global commitment to halt and reverse biodiversity loss by 2030.
The meeting comes at a pivotal moment for the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, adopted in 2022 to address the destruction of ecosystems and the decline of plant and animal species worldwide.
With just four years remaining until the deadline, the central question facing governments is whether existing policies, funding and conservation efforts are sufficient to deliver the targets they have already agreed to.
The United Nations has warned that progress remains inadequate, despite advances in national planning, leaving countries with a narrowing window to protect ecosystems and reverse the damage caused by human activity.
Addressing leaders in Yerevan ahead of the conference, UN Secretary-General António Guterres described the summit as a moment for accountability, stressing the urgency of accelerating action to protect the natural world.
A global plan, but a widening implementation gap
The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework provides an international blueprint for addressing the principal causes of biodiversity loss, including habitat destruction, unsustainable exploitation of natural resources, pollution, climate change and invasive species.
Its most prominent commitment, known as “30 by 30”, calls on countries to conserve at least 30 per cent of the world’s land and sea areas by 2030.
Achieving this goal would help protect ecosystems and the habitats that species depend on for breeding, feeding, resting and migration.
However, the framework extends beyond protected areas. It also sets out ambitions for mobilising biodiversity finance, reforming harmful incentives, improving the sustainability of production and consumption, and reducing the negative impacts of businesses on nature.
Progress in translating these commitments into national policies has been uneven.
According to the UN, nearly 90 per cent of the 196 parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity have established national biodiversity targets. Close to 60 per cent have developed national biodiversity strategies and action plans, while more than 70 per cent have submitted national reports.
Yet these milestones in planning and reporting have not consistently resulted in implementation.
Fewer than half of the national targets assessed by countries are currently on track, while global ambitions for conserving land and marine areas remain insufficient to meet the 30-by-30 commitment.
The gap highlights a fundamental challenge for international environmental agreements: adopting targets is only the beginning. Governments must also mobilise resources, implement policies and demonstrate measurable improvements in the condition of ecosystems.
The financing challenge behind nature protection
Money will be among the decisive issues at COP17.
The global biodiversity framework calls for at least $200 billion annually from all sources by 2030, including at least $30 billion in international biodiversity finance.
However, funding gaps remain a major obstacle to implementing conservation plans, particularly in countries that lack sufficient financial resources, technical capacity and reliable data to monitor progress.
Armenia’s Ambassador to the UN, Paruyr Hovhannisyan, highlighted the scale of financing required to achieve the framework’s objectives.
The challenge is not simply raising additional money. It also involves ensuring that funding reaches conservation programmes, supports implementation and produces results that can be measured.
Governments will also consider arrangements for the Cali Fund, which is intended to promote fair and equitable benefit-sharing from the commercial use of digital sequence information on genetic resources.
The issue connects biodiversity protection with the economic value derived from genetic information, including its potential applications in research and commercial activities.
How the fund operates will be important in determining how benefits from such uses are shared and how they can contribute to biodiversity conservation.
Beyond direct conservation funding, the negotiations will require governments to consider economic policies that influence how natural resources are used.
Unsustainable production and consumption, alongside incentives that encourage environmentally harmful activities, can undermine conservation efforts even where environmental agencies have developed ambitious protection plans.
This means progress will depend on decisions made across government, including in finance, agriculture, trade and business regulation, rather than within environment ministries alone.
From commitments to measurable results
COP17 is expected to conduct the first global review of collective progress under the Kunming-Montreal framework, giving countries an opportunity to assess what has been achieved since its adoption and identify where implementation is falling short.
The review is intended to establish a clearer picture of progress towards the 2030 targets and help governments determine where faster action is needed.
Improved monitoring, access to reliable data, stronger cooperation and greater technical capacity will be central to this process.
Without these tools, countries may struggle to determine whether conservation policies are producing meaningful improvements or whether biodiversity continues to decline despite reported progress.
For Armenia, the host country, the ambition is to make COP17 both a review of existing commitments and a turning point for implementation.
Environment Minister and incoming COP17 President Hambardzum Matevosyan said the conference must establish where progress stands, which measures are working and what needs to change.
The objective is to move beyond reviewing national plans towards identifying practical measures that can close the gap between international commitments and outcomes on the ground.
With the 2030 deadline approaching, the conference will test whether governments can turn the global framework into a more effective instrument for protecting nature.
Why biodiversity loss matters beyond conservation
The consequences of biodiversity loss extend well beyond the disappearance of individual species.
Healthy ecosystems underpin food production, water security and the environmental processes that sustain human life. When forests, wetlands, oceans and other ecosystems deteriorate, communities can lose essential resources and livelihoods.
The impacts can be particularly serious for people whose incomes and daily needs depend directly on land, forests, fisheries and other natural resources.
This makes biodiversity protection both an environmental priority and a development challenge.
The UN has repeatedly warned that human wellbeing depends on the health of the natural world. Protecting ecosystems therefore requires action that recognises the relationship between environmental sustainability, economic activity and the needs of local communities.
As governments gather in Armenia, the challenge is to ensure that the framework’s targets translate into policies and investments capable of addressing the underlying causes of biodiversity decline.
The world already has an agreed blueprint for protecting nature. What remains uncertain is whether countries can close the financing and implementation gaps quickly enough to fulfil it.
For Guterres, the urgency is clear: protecting biodiversity means safeguarding the natural systems on which food, water and clean air depend.
The outcome of COP17 will help determine whether the global commitment to halt and reverse biodiversity loss by 2030 remains achievableor whether the gap between promises and progress continues to widen.
