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The world’s progress toward 23 targets intended to halt and reverse biodiversity loss by 2030 is undergoing its first global review at a UN summit that opened Monday in Yerevan, Armenia, Anadolu Agency reported.
The 17th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity, known as CBD COP17, will run through Oct. 30 under the theme “Taking Action For Nature.”
The gathering comes halfway between the adoption of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework in 2022 and its 2030 deadline.
A new UN report released as the summit opened found that nearly 90% of parties have established national biodiversity targets and more than 70% have submitted progress reports. However, fewer than half of the national targets assessed by governments are currently on track.
Negotiations in Yerevan will focus on accelerating implementation, mobilizing financing, strengthening scientific guidance and increasing the involvement of Indigenous peoples and local communities.
“The main goal of the meeting can be defined as reassessing what has been done so far, determining what needs to be done next and restructuring the areas where progress has remained insufficient,” Professor Dogan Yasar, a member of the Turkish Academy of Sciences’ working group on environment, biodiversity and climate change, told Anadolu Agency.
Yasar said the next step should be to turn national commitments into concrete measures through stronger accountability mechanisms.
30x30 target remains distant
One of the framework’s best-known commitments is the 30x30 target, which calls for at least 30% of the world’s land, inland waters, coastal areas and oceans to be effectively conserved by 2030.
The target goes beyond formally designating protected areas. It also calls for them to be effectively managed, ecologically connected and equitably governed, while respecting the rights of Indigenous peoples and local communities.
Protected Planet data for October show that protected areas and other effective conservation measures cover about 18.7% of terrestrial and inland water environments and 10% of the world’s oceans.
The gap is particularly wide in marine areas: 23.09% of waters under national jurisdiction are protected or conserved, compared with just 1.45% of areas beyond national jurisdiction.
Other targets include restoring degraded ecosystems and reducing environmentally harmful subsidies by at least $500 billion annually.
Yasar said biodiversity and climate policies could not be considered separately, as forests, wetlands, oceans and soils store carbon while also supporting food, water and livelihoods.
“Providing clean water to ecosystems must be the priority,” he said. “When clean water is provided, a healthy ecosystem develops, and this positively affects biodiversity.”
The Yerevan conference takes place weeks before the UN climate summit, COP31, which will be held in Antalya, Türkiye, from Nov. 9 to 20.
Although the two meetings operate under separate UN conventions, both are expected to emphasize protecting and restoring ecosystems, which play a crucial role in limiting climate change and helping communities adapt to its effects.
