The review warns that reversing nature loss and meeting 23 targets by 2030 require rapidly accelerated action. Countries also agreed a voluntary route for additional donors to signal interest before COP18, while leaving the form of a post-2030 financial mechanism for that conference in 2028.
Countries adopted the first global review of progress toward reversing nature loss at COP17 in Yerevan, Armenia, alongside decisions on who contributes to biodiversity finance and how funding will be governed. In its account published on 31 October 2026, Carbon Brief places adoption of the review in the final plenary on 30 October 2026. The Convention on Biological Diversity’s closing statement says the conference concluded the following day.
The decisions follow the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, agreed in 2022. Arrangements for its global review were left unresolved when COP16 in Cali was suspended because too few parties remained to make decisions. Those arrangements were adopted at the resumed talks in Rome in February 2025.
The adopted review warns that the goal of reversing nature loss and meeting the framework’s targets will not be achieved unless action accelerates rapidly. It urges countries to implement the agreement faster, including by increasing ambition, while recognizing that developing countries need more support to do so.
It also encourages faster reform of subsidies that harm nature, in line with national circumstances, and calls for greater action on the underlying causes of biodiversity loss. These calls form the Yerevan Pathway, the agreed response to the review.
The finance dispute centered partly on a push by JUSCANZ, a developed-country bloc, to broaden the group of contributors. Developing countries sought a financial mechanism governed by the conference of parties. Switzerland called the compromise “super, mega-delicate”; Kenya said it involved major political compromises with “no major winner or loser”.
Under Article 20 of the Convention on Biological Diversity, developed countries already must provide new and additional financial resources to cover developing countries’ costs of implementing nature-protection measures. Other countries may voluntarily assume those obligations.
A secret ballot at COP17's closing plenary in Yerevan selected Ecuador to host the next conference under the Convention on Biological Diversity.
The agreed procedure invites interested countries to signal that they want to join the developed-country donor list through bilateral, confidential consultations, repeated at every alternate conference afterward. Additions require an invitation, consultation and explicit consent. Countries did not agree criteria for expanding the list, and developing countries can still contribute voluntarily without joining it.
| Funding target | Amount and deadline | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Developed-country finance for nature | At least $20 billion annually by 2025 | Commitment missed |
| Biodiversity resources from all sources | At least $200 billion annually by 2030 | Framework target 19 |
Countries agreed criteria to shape and resource a permanent financial mechanism under conference governance. Whether it becomes a new fund or uses existing arrangements remains for the next conference to decide. Oscar Soria of the Common Initiative said the decision left matters “very open”, with no movement toward a new fund or money and no upgrades to existing funding arrangements.
COP17 president Hambardzum Matevosyan said the implementation priorities include national plans, financial resources, science, monitoring and participation across society. Convention executive secretary Astrid Schomaker said resources must reach the countries and communities that need them, and that governments’ changes at home would test the agreement.
Daudi Sumba, WWF International’s chief conservation officer, urged returning negotiators to turn the review into dedicated action by transforming the most damaging activities in food and finance systems. Governments’ next tasks are to implement the review and conduct the donor consultations before settling the financial mechanism’s institutional structure at the next talks.
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At Yerevan’s biodiversity conference, Payet pledges continued support for Armenia on chemicals management, with safer disposal of expired chemicals and less waste among his priorities.
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Environment official Voskehat Grigoryan says the Global OECM Action Hub will pool expertise to help countries apply existing conservation criteria outside protected areas.
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