At Armenia’s COP17 biodiversity conference, Ibrahima Cheikh Diong said the fund wanted to connect nature protection with responses to climate damage. He said Armenia’s funding request remained under review and hoped for a Board decision in December.
Ibrahima Cheikh Diong, executive director of the Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage, said his attendance at Armenia’s COP17 biodiversity conference reflected his interest in connecting nature conservation with responses to climate-related loss and damage. In an interview conducted jointly by Armenpress and Public Television, the fund’s interest extended to understanding Armenia’s varied ecosystems, conditions on the ground and the challenges the country faces.
Armenia is already represented on the fund’s Board, Diong said. That gives the country a role in funding decisions and helps the fund understand conditions in Armenia.
To explain the connection between biodiversity—the variety of life—and climate-related loss and damage, Diong pointed to coral reefs. When reefs are destroyed, fishermen and communities that depend on those resources are affected too. He described the fund’s presence at COP17 as a willingness to work with countries participating in the Convention on Biological Diversity to protect the most vulnerable countries.
Diong said Armenia had applied for funding through an early-intervention initiative launched at COP30. The application remained under review, and the fund had already responded to Armenia’s government. He also cited 176 applications received from 119 countries.
The Board’s next meeting is scheduled for December, when Diong said it would decide which countries to support. He hoped Armenia’s application would receive a decision at that meeting.
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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Armenia’s Environment Ministry says the countries have succeeded Colombia and Germany in leading a partnership that helps countries put national biodiversity plans into practice.
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Environment Minister Hambardzum Matevosyan says the Yerevan initiative aims to bring mountain countries together to put conservation into national plans and budgets.
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