Opening Ceremony Press Conference, UN Convention on Biodiversity - COP 17

Testing in the room. All right, everybody. I believe we're going to get this show started. Good afternoon, everyone. Hello from Yerevan, Armenia, and welcome to the official opening press conference of the 2026 UN Biodiversity Conference. We welcome in particular all representatives from the media online and in person with us here in the room today. My name is Liz Mullen Bernhardt. I'm the head of communications for the Secretariat of the Biodiversity Secretariat, and I'm very happy to be moderating today's press conference. Today I'm very honored to be joined by His Excellency Mr. Hovhannes Ambartsumyan, COP17 President, and Ms. Astrid Schomaker, Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity. Together we'll be discussing the significance of the conference over the next two weeks, including COP17 and the meetings of the parties of the Nagoya and Cartagena Protocols. We'll discuss the priorities for the weeks ahead and what needs to be achieved here in Yerevan in order to accelerate global action towards halting and reversing biodiversity loss. Before we open up to take questions from the press, both His Excellency Mr. Martirosyan and Ms. Schumacher will be providing some brief remarks. After those remarks, we will take time to answer questions from journalists here in the room and online. I will try to alternate between the two. When asking a question, we will ask you to state your name and the outlet, the organization that you're representing. And for those online, please provide your name, the media outlet, and the question, and I will read those out loud. And if you could also let us know to whom your question is addressed. Thank you. For those who need translations, we will have them in English, French, Spanish, and Armenian. Those are available on UN Web TV if you're watching online. And if you're in the room, we've got microphones, headphones in the back. It is now my pleasure to hand the floor to His Excellency, Minister Matavossian, President of COP17, for his opening remarks. Minister, the floor is yours.

Thank you. Dear Executive Secretary, distinguished colleagues, representatives of the media, I congratulate you and all of us on the opening of COP17. Today marks an important milestone in our extensive joint efforts, and I would like to thank Ms. Shoemaker, and the entire team of the Convention's Secretariat for their close cooperation and support throughout the preparations of this conference. Thank you. Today I was elected President of COP17, and I thank the parties for their trust, which is both a great honor and a significant responsibility for me personally and for Armenia. Over the next two years, we'll work to translate that trust into collective action and tangible results. The Leaders' Summit for Nature held ahead of the conference and the adoption of the Yerevan Declaration have provided important political momentum for our work. Yesterday's opening ceremony also underscored the principle that unites us. Protecting nature is our shared responsibility. Today, the formal proceedings of the conference have begun. Our task is to translate political commitments into agreed decisions and practical action. At the heart of the COP17 agenda is the first global review of the collective progress in implementing the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. We must establish the clear understanding of what we have achieved, where the main gaps remain, and what additional efforts and resources are needed to meet the targets set for 2030. As President of the conference, I'll work to ensure an open, transparent, and inclusive dialogue, helping to strengthen mutual trust among parties and build common solutions. It is my hope that we will leave Yerevan with stronger cooperation and a clear commitment to act for nature. I'd also like to thank the representatives of the media for bringing this important agenda to the public. And I'll be pleased to take your questions. Thank you.

Minister Matavossian, thank you very much. Just a reminder for those who are online, you may start to ask questions in the chat, in the Q&A function, and we will get to them after we have opening remarks also from Madam Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity. Astrid, the floor is yours.

Thank you so much and good evening, everybody. Apologies again for the slight delay. in this press conference. And dear Minister Matavosyan, congratulations on the first day of the conference that went super smoothly. Ladies and gentlemen, we have spent decades documenting the biodiversity crisis. You have been writing about it. We know what is happening to nature, and we also know what that means for our economies, our health, and our future. And importantly, And that's the good news. We also know what needs to be done. What we need to do now is to close the gap between what we know and what we do. And this is why we're here in Yerevan. The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework gives us a clear path forward. Its adoption four years ago was a historic step in the history of our convention. And it sort of framed global and biodiversity ambition with a comprehensive plan to address not only the conservation of nature, but the underlying pressures driving its destruction, and the finance and support mechanisms that are needed to arrive at an equitable way forward for all people on this planet. Since then, we are seeing countries around the world taking significant steps to deliver on their pledges. And I think it's really important that we recognize this progress ahead of asking them to scale up action. So just days before this conference opened today, the UN Secretary General launched right here the State of Biodiversity Action Report. Its findings provide the evidence base for our discussions at COP17. And they confirm what I just said, that important work is well underway. As an example, nearly 90% of parties have translated the framework's global commitments into national biodiversity targets. And not just one or two. Action is underway across all 23 targets, not only by governments, but also, of course, through commitments from Indigenous peoples, local communities, from women, from youth, from non-governmental organizations, from business, from all sectors, and citizens and communities everywhere. So these past four years, we have seen something very beautiful, actually. See how a global agreement has begun to shape national policies, budgets, and laws around the world, and has led to a mobilization of efforts across society everywhere. But we also have to be very clear about the shortfalls. Progress is uneven and not yet at the pace and scale needed to achieve the framework's 23 targets by 2030. And current efforts are particularly lacking in areas that require action beyond environment ministries, including finance, harmful incentives, business action and sustainable consumption. These challenges require putting biodiversity action at the heart of the ways we make economic decisions and direct financial resources. That is challenging, and that is why the decisions taken here in Yerevan matter. So to elaborate a bit more, if I may, Just to say, we will consider here more than 50 agenda items during COP17 and the concurrent meetings of the parties to the Nagoya and Cartagena Protocol that deal with access and benefit sharing and with biosafety. The State of Biodiversity Action Report provides the summary of progress and of the gaps in implementation. And the first global review, the centerpiece of our work here in Yerevan, offers us now the opportunity to look at this progress and at the gaps and to identify and agree on the actions to accelerate implementation. And of course, our hope is that we use this global review as a platform to develop innovative solutions that can be part of the negotiated outcome of the COP. And we're actually quite optimistic that we can make progress here. But I also want to stress that negotiated outcomes are only always half of a COP. We really look forward to see the solutions that are being identified, then supported through new coalitions of the willing, new announcements, and new financial pledges, as we already saw happen on Friday during the Leaders for Nature Summit. During this conference, we will also consider a whole range of scientific and technical issues. They are important for biodiversity, using it sustainably and addressing the pressures. Yes, we need more money, but we also need to be sure that we spend the money in the best way, aligned with the latest science. But mobilizing finance, building capacity, strengthening cooperation will be the major focus of this conference. And ensuring that the benefits arising from the use of genetic resources are shared fairly and equitably. is a central objective of the Convention, including when this information is shared in its digitally sequenced form. All these discussions are connected. They are always about strengthening science, resources, cooperation, and supporting countries so that they have what they need to turn commitments into results. And ladies and gentlemen, we are really not starting from scratch. We have a framework, a shared framework. Let me repeat, we know where the progress is being made. We have a clear picture of the gaps that remain. Yerevan is our half-term moment. We now have the unique opportunity to build on the progress made and close the gaps and accelerate action for nature. Thank you.

Thank you, Astrid, and thank you, Minister Martirosyan. We will now open up to questions in the room. I'd like you to kindly raise your hand and we will get to you with a microphone. Please do identify yourself. We are asking to prioritize representatives from the media and press as a reminder. If you could kindly raise your hand and my colleague will get to you. Here in the back, thank you.

Thank you. Good afternoon. Ali Bektawi, working for AFP, Agence France-Presse. I had two questions for both of you, please. The first one on harmful subsidies. So it was said a lot since the Leaders' Summit and even today how harmful these could be to biodiversity and nature and how they needed to go down. But could you explain to us what kind of move forward you expect during this meeting, at the end of the meeting, and are you optimistic about it? And the second question is about the previous presidency of the biodiversity cup, Colombia. The vice minister talked this morning, also this afternoon during a press conference. I just wanted to know if you felt sort of a change of tone compared to the previous administration that was very vocal positively and if with this new administration that wants to increase oil production, fracking, you feel that the optimism in moving from this country is going a bit down. Thank you.

Thank you. I believe those two questions were addressed to both of you. If you like, would you like to start, Astrid? Thank you.

Yes, thank you very much for those questions. I'll start with the The first question that we have been charming the elephant in the room, the harmful subsidies. And let me maybe say one thing very clearly. We cannot protect nature with one hand while with the other hand spending money to destroy it. And many of you may have seen the figures that for every $1 spent on protecting nature, $30 are spent on harming nature. Taking one particular year, this is the latest reliable figures we have, 2023, we saw spending to destroy nature in the order of 7.3 trillion annually. And out of that, yes, the majority was spending by the private sector, but it was also supported by massive subsidies. Our convention has a target to reduce those subsidies by 500 billion annually by 2030. By 2025, they were supposed to be identified. This is one of the targets that's in the dark red in our report. So we need to move forward. Here at this convention, we want everybody to recognize that it's a moment of accountability and to have a discussion how we can move forward. And one of the interesting outcomes of the convention, not the negotiations, will be a new action coalition that actually Colombia has been sponsoring. And I'm sure the minister will talk about it in a moment. Thank you.

So by agreeing with the Executive Secretary probably I should try to answer the second-half of the question. Well, first, I do not want and I'm not in that capacity of commenting the local politics of the Colombia, but I'll share my impressions about the COP16. Well, the COP15 gave us the most important framework. The COP16 come up with very good initiatives, one of them being the Gali Fund. Very good progress on several items, namely I would like to say the article 8A on the indigenous peoples and the local communities. And it was COP for the people. And now we are at the COP17, and this COP is COP for action, taking action for nature. I have worked with both representatives of different governments of Colombia. I must say, on both sides, I have the same impression that I'm working with Colombia as a country, not with different governments. About the Current cooperation with climate, the cooperation is very good, as the Executive Secretary said, with an initiative, and it was with the Colombian government. So I don't see any problems that the Colombian government will not use the legacy of COP16. And our turn now is, of course, to build on that success by moving forward. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister Matavosian. And thank you, Astrid. We will now take another question from the room. Please identify yourself and to whom the question. Thank you.

Lucian Agoricorean, Free News. Mr. Minister, today, for a whole period of two years, you've been elected as the president of COP17. What does that mean? What authorities does the COP17 president have, and what that gives to a country of presidency? Thank you.

Thanks for the question.

Well, I have tried to think for myself about this issue, to try to give you the most comprehensive answer as possible, but I'll try to be very brief now. First of all, as regards the competencies, authorities of the presidency per se. That's the coordination of the process as a whole. I mean, among the parties to the convention, and not only the parties to the convention, but also the political units that have been joining the process. That's about 196 parties to it. So this is the coordination, the hosting of different sessions, the leadership in the process of negotiations, the creation of opportunities, and the most conducive environment for seamless process of negotiations. This is also bilateral discussions, and through those discussions, all the parties will be heard so that the presidency makes the right decisions. Well, of course, we are dealing with the most important part of these authorities at this moment. We're also leading the process of negotiations at this moment. And We are coordinating the work of the conference at this moment, but I'm sure, and quite commendably, by the way, the 2026-2031 program of the Government of Armenia has a special chapter on the importance of COP17. We'll have to highlight that again, as the presidency will continue to be impartial, constructive, Meanwhile, very active. Hence, the coming two years are quite important for Armenia because Armenia is going to try to use all the merits established for the country in this period of two years, specifically emanating from the main interest of the convention. I mean, the requirements related to the biodiversity agenda and what gives to Armenia, well, I think a lot indeed. This is the largest international platform that Armenia is hosting and has the chance to be the president of. This is all about the number of the participants, which is also very important. And obviously, that turns the overall convention and the event per se into something more inclusive, I should say. However, my opinion is that this is not just an event. This is, in fact, a celebration for Armenia. And that, once again, underlines the political importance of Armenia, puts Armenia on the political map. And by the presidency, per se, we are turning into, as I've said many times, into a platform, into a center of global decision making. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister Matavosyan. We have another question in the room. Thank you. Someone will come to you with the microphone.

Thank you. I'm Hongjin with China Xinhua. So my question is for the Executive Secretary, Ms. Schomaker. So it's about the Kunming Biodiversity Fund. that's officially launched in 2024. So after two years, how would you assess the role of the found in helping developing countries to implement the coming Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, particularly in addressing the founding and capacity gaps they face? and looking ahead where more needs to be done to scale up the funds impact and ensure that its support translates into results on the ground. Thank you.

To support the implementation of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework and as such it is one of currently three funds specifically dedicated to biodiversity, but the one fund really focusing on the framework. Now, so far, the fund has moved very, very quickly. It was established in 2022, as you said, as part of China's leadership at COP 22 when the framework was established. And in 2024 at our COP in Cali, we could already have a first round of disbursements. And we're moving forward towards more disbursements during this conference and later this year. Now, what is really interesting about this fund is that it really wants to be aligned with the decisions parties are taking in the convention and help developing parties support or implement those decisions. And this has a very specific mission. The other thing that I would like to highlight about this fund, and that makes me actually very, very optimistic, is that it is the first fund that has actually attracted private funding to join the government money that was put by China into this fund. So a Chinese company has stepped forward and has joined China as the key donor of that fund. And I understand other companies are considering the same thing. So that is very good news for us. Thank you.

Yes, also, Minister, thank you.

Yes, if I may. I'm not sure if this information has been publicized or not, but since you talked about the human biodiversity fund. I'd like to share some information that may be interesting for our international, especially for our local media. Now, well, first and foremost, like the executive secretary said, this is very important. We always talk about the, especially in this scope, we talk about the implementation. And we are here also for the global review, the global review of the KMGBF. And the fund is one of the ways of unlocking new possibilities and opportunities in order to take action and to make our decisions tangible on the ground. And in this regard, I must say that I participated in the last coming dialogue. I'm very impressed by the work that our colleagues from China do, and also the co-chairs from Canada. This is a great opportunity for Armenia as well. And we have worked with our colleagues, and on my bilateral meetings with my counterpart, Minister Wang from China, I raised the issue that we are very much interested in the fund. and we have applied for three projects. I'm not sure which one will be approved, but hopefully any of them will be approved. And that will bring that impact to Armenia as well. That relate the projects that we have worked on and submitted. It's about monitoring and preservation of the Lake Sevan biodiversity. which is extremely important for Armenia. We have a science-based agency that deals with the preservation, especially for the Lake Sevan trout, ishran. So I think if any of those projects will be approved by the Kooning Fund, that will be actually very helpful for Armenia. Thank you.

Thank you both for those responses. We do have time, I believe, for just one more question. It's almost 7 p.m. I will take the question here in the front. IPS, thank you.

Thank you, Lise. Hi, I'm Stella Fall from Interpress Service. I have one question for Astrid and one question for Mr. Matta-Possia. The first question to Astrid is, before coming here, you did stress quite a bit on the need of realigning all the biodiversity finance mechanisms. Uh my question is, is there a road map that the CBD has prepared or kind of a plan to to kind of guide the or facilitate the discussions here on this? Um and to Mister Mataposian, my question is, last time in Cali, we saw that the cop could not wrap up in time and the because the parties could not agree on certain issues and we media persons had to go back home without actually reporting the final outcome. Uh so, as the president, what are the measures you have taken and how confident are you that that will not be repeated here in Yerevan. Thank you.

I'm curious to hear the answer to the second question. No, no. Oh, seriously. I think the word alignment is a crucial term for this COP, and we use it in several ways. We speak about aligning, of course, national ambition and action with the global targets, but we're also speaking about realigning or aligning the entire financial system with the needs of nature, if you so want. And yes, in a way, you can say we do have a roadmap, We have a roadmap for resource mobilization in particular. That was agreed at COP16 and sets out a whole plan up to 2030 of steps to be taken at this COP and at the next COP and then in 2030. Part of that is, for example, at this COP, to agree on the criteria for the Convention's financial mechanism so that at the next COP a decision can be taken. We also have at this COP, for example, a study before us that looks at all the obstacles to biodiversity finance. So why is it that we can all talk about the fact that more money is needed for biodiversity, that everybody agrees, and yet it doesn't happen? So what are these obstacles? And very, very important in that discussion also, how do we bring the business sector into this debate? And what we see there is a lot of interest, a lot of willingness, but we also see that the decisions and the discussion is really mostly limited to the corporate sustainability departments. And we need those discussions to move into the boardrooms. We need companies to understand they depend on nature. Nature loss is a risk for their bottom line and that they have to take this into account in their business decisions, align their business models and make sure they work with nature and not against it. So that is this triple idea of alignment, national action with global ambition, the entire finance and economic system, but also at the individual company level, aligning your actions, your business practices with nature positive outcomes in order essentially to protect the long term viability of your own business. To wrap up the.

Press conference, it is.

Please. There was a there was a second. You're missing the hardest. You're missing the hardest question ever heard today. Well, we also have a roadmap. We also have a strategy as well. It's a presidency secret to push negotiations forward. No, I'm kidding. There is no secret. We're fully inclusive and open, of course. So my understanding of the Cops is the possibilities that the Cops will not manage to end by the discussions of the full items during one COP. That possibility is getting narrower and narrower as we move on. And the reason being, if you go back 20 years ago, you still had 10 days for the full discussions, but the agenda was not so tense. There were not so many agenda items. There were not so many components in it. We still have the 10 days for the negotiations. but the agenda is keep growing and growing. So that makes things a lot harder. And for this COP and for the upcoming COPs, it will be more and more difficult to time manage for the negotiations. And some of the items, they need detailed discussions to make sure that we have a consensus. But nevertheless, when you said how you are confident, Well, I would like to be very positive here, but for several reasons. I'm not just saying it just because I want to, but because there is some work has been done. Well, the Lira Summit Declaration is a very important document when it comes for the political willingness. It has been circulated through many parties. We have gathered many ideas. It has been It has been drafted in consultations with the parties. So it's a sign that we are already starting the COP discussions with high ambition, but at the same time with political willingness from the Leaders Summit to push the agenda forward. The next thing that the Armenian presidency or the current designated presidency, we did it, is Several months ago, we have started to be actively engaged internationally, talking to counterparts, ministers, and I met many, many of them. And also, we engaged with the parties to start hearing about their stand, to start hearing what they want, what they expect, much before the actual COP negotiations started. So I think those are important part of that road map that we have done, and that gives some confidence that we already could oversee how the negotiations will go. But please do not forget this is the first day of the official negotiations. So as we are here having the media conference, something could have happened in one of the contact groups. But nevertheless, we will do our best to have COP17 and finish and adjourn the plenaries in due time. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister Matavossian. Thank you, Madam Executive Secretary, for your time. Thank you for your thoughtful responses. Most of all, thank you to the journalists, representatives of the media who are here in the room, and also those that are online. Your participation is a very important part of our conference, so we thank you for being here. Please remind everyone that we will have all media information, including live broadcasts, recordings and reporting on our CBD media tab of the website. You will find all information on press conferences, media advisories, and press releases, as well as daily updates that we will be providing there. In our press releases, we have also pointed towards a WhatsApp group for journalists. I welcome you to join it if you're not in it already, and I will give you information through that channel as well. If you were not able to ask a question today, we do ask that you come to ourselves. There's beautiful Franca in the back of the room in green. We have our colleagues here that can help you to direct questions or to set up potentially an interview with either Minister Matvosian or Executive Secretary Ms. Schomaker. Our next planned press conference or press release will likely be on Monday, October 26, and that will give a recap of week one and a preview of week two of the conference. And we will provide updated information when we have it. As always, our press conferences are streamed online and recorded on Web TV in all the UN languages, plus Armenian. We welcome you to also look there. And with that, I will close. with some closing remarks from Minister Matavossian. Thank you.

Am I making this harder for you? Please, if I may, due to the busy schedule, I personally, I think many of our colleagues here, we missed a very good surprise news that I'd like to share. So caretakers, of the Gandasar community conserved area in Zangakatoon village have captured the new leopard. As you know, we have endemic leopards here in Armenia on camera traps. So the leopard was recorded twice on October 9 and October 13. This is extremely exciting news for me. So the second leopard recording in the community conserved area since 2025, while the number of bezoar goats the last monitoring shown that they have been doubled. And these are the remarkable achievements that demonstrate the success of community-based conservation and effectiveness of this conservation model in Armenia. And for your information, the leopard has been named Arasi. after the caretaker who captured images on the camera traps and for the work that Armenia has been doing for the preservations of the leopards. I would like to thank by using this opportunity to thank our partners from ECF, WWF, BMZ and KFW. Thank you. Yes, and the leopard is heading to the cup. But I heard the similar story happened in China when the elephant run and passed several hundred kilometers to go to one of the meetings. That is very exciting news. Thank you.

We do have a representative leopard and elephant, of course, here in the plenary hall. So hopefully you'll see them there. Thank you for that. Thank you, everyone. Have a good evening.