Category: News

Armenia attaches importance to ensuring gender equality in biodiversity conservation and the implementation of environmental policies, Minister of Labor and Welfare Arsen Torosyan said during the “Women Forum: Taking action for the Gender-responsive implementation of the KMGBF,” held in the Blue Zone as part of COP17.

He said Armenia views gender equality as a fundamental principle of human rights protection, social justice and sustainable development.

Torosyan noted that an important step in this direction was the government’s approval in 2025 of the 2025–2028 Strategy for the Implementation of Gender Policy and its Action Plan. The strategy identifies six key priorities aimed at ensuring equal participation of women and men in governance and decision-making, promoting gender-responsive approaches in the socioeconomic sphere, expanding equal opportunities in education and healthcare, preventing gender-based violence and discrimination, and developing gender-responsive policies on climate change.

“The implementation rate of the strategy in 2025 was assessed at around 90%, demonstrating the comprehensive and effective work being carried out to achieve the established objectives,” the minister said.

He said the strategy’s sixth priority is aligned with the Convention on Biological Diversity’s Gender Plan of Action (2023–2030), which emphasizes the full, equal and effective participation of women in the development and implementation of environmental policies, the protection of their rights and their involvement in decision-making.

Torosyan also noted that Armenia is taking steps to strengthen its national mechanisms for gender equality. In this context, the Council on Women, chaired by the Deputy Prime Minister of Armenia, plays an important role as a platform for evaluating and monitoring policies aimed at promoting gender equality, as well as programs to prevent discrimination against women and violence against them.

According to the minister, effective implementation of environmental policies requires taking into account the different needs, opportunities and roles of women and men, while ensuring equal participation and opportunities to take part in decision-making.

“Expanding women’s participation in environmental decision-making, promoting their leadership and ensuring equal opportunities should be among our shared priorities in the coming years,” Torosyan said, adding that Armenia is ready to continue its efforts to bring together gender equality and environmental sustainability.

Armenia has presented another COP17 presidency flagship initiative at the ongoing conference in Yerevan: the Yerevan Tech for Biodiversity Monitoring Platform.

COP17 President and Armenian Minister of Environment Hambardzum Matevosyan announced the initiative.

“I delivered the opening remarks at the presentation of the initiative, emphasizing that effective decisions aimed at nature conservation must be based on reliable data and the ability to assess progress. Our goal is to support countries in strengthening their national monitoring systems, filling data gaps, and applying innovative technologies, from satellite observations to artificial intelligence,” Matevosyan said in a statement.

The initiative was developed in coordination with the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity and under the joint leadership of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

“I called on our partners to join the initiative, putting their professional expertise and technological capabilities at the service of countries’ needs. This cooperation must continue beyond COP17, helping deliver measurable results in nature conservation,” Matevosyan said.

Women are already leading efforts to conserve biodiversity, but institutions and systems need to recognize their leadership and support its development, Dr. Gemma Harper, Chief Executive of the United Kingdom’s Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC), said during the “Women Forum: Taking action for the Gender-responsive implementation of the KMGBF,” held as part of the 17th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP17) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).

“The challenge is not that we lack women leaders, but that our system does not recognize leadership and does not support it through policies and financing. We have commitments under the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework and its action plan. COP17 must help us move from commitments to implementation,” Harper said.

According to Harper, incorporating women’s experience and knowledge into decision-making can help achieve more effective outcomes, while ignoring them will lead to incomplete decisions.

“Investing in women is not an additional action for biodiversity conservation; it is part of biodiversity conservation itself. Women do not need to be taught how to lead; they are already leaders. When women lead, everyone benefits,” she said, adding that women must have the opportunity to shape decisions that affect nature and people’s lives.

Armenian Deputy Minister of Environment Aram Meymaryan also emphasized the importance of women’s knowledge and experience in biodiversity conservation during the forum.

He said women are not only holders of knowledge in nature conservation but also play an important role in passing that knowledge on to future generations.

“A strategy that does not take women’s involvement and skills into account is doomed to fail,” Meymaryan said, adding that women also play an important role in childcare and maintaining family life by teaching children to live in harmony with nature.

According to Meymaryan, it is important to identify by 2030 what changes are needed to expand women’s participation and role in biodiversity conservation.

Ucom press release 

“The Secret Path of Hovazadzor,” published with Ucom’s support, was presented at the joint Ucom–FPWC pavilion in the Green Zone at COP17. Held as part of the SunChild International Environmental Festival and COP17, the event brought teenagers together to explore literature and nature.

The environmental tale follows Azat and his friends on a hike that turns into a mysterious adventure filled with unexpected encounters with wild animals. This story of friendship and mutual support introduces young readers to Armenia’s wildlife, encouraging them to discover, understand and protect it.

“At Ucom, we believe that a responsible attitude towards nature develops from an early age through learning, curiosity and asking questions. A book can be an important companion on that journey. As a green company, we support initiatives like this to give young people new opportunities to learn and discover the world around them. Environmental education is also an important part of our cooperation with FPWC, helping us nurture a more informed and caring generation,” said Ralph Yirikian, General Director of Ucom.

During the presentation, the book’s author, Shogher Petrosyan, and illustrator, Emma Isakhanyan, shared the inspiration behind the story and how it came to life. Young participants spoke with the creators, asked questions and shared their impressions. The event also featured readings and discussions of excerpts from the book.

“Developing environmental awareness and a caring attitude towards nature among younger generations has always been at the heart of the SunChild Festival and our educational programmes. ‘The Secret Path of Hovazadzor’ is more than an adventure story: it is a bridge connecting children with Armenia’s rich biodiversity. We are delighted that, with the support of our long-standing partner Ucom, we can use literature, art and film to engage teenagers in the vital work of protecting nature,” said Sona Kalantaryan, Director of SunChild NGO.

The book will also be presented as part of Education Day at the KM-GBF Pavilion in the COP17 Blue Zone, dedicated to the role of education in biodiversity conservation and the promotion of international cooperation.

Ucom has a long-standing partnership with the Foundation for the Preservation of Wildlife and Cultural Assets (FPWC), supporting initiatives in nature conservation, environmental education and community development. Its support for the SunChild Festival and the publication of “The Secret Path of Hovazadzor” forms part of this partnership.

COP17 President and Armenia’s Minister of Environment Hambardzum Matevosyan met with Japan’s State Minister of the Environment, Hiromi Mitsubayashi, on the sidelines of COP17 in Yerevan.

“We discussed opportunities to expand cooperation in environmental protection. I thanked the Government of Japan for its support in modernizing Armenia’s air quality monitoring system. I emphasized the importance of drawing on Japanese expertise and technologies, providing training for specialists, and exchanging experience in environmental education. We also discussed the COP17 agenda and the progress of negotiations, underscoring the importance of working together to achieve global biodiversity goals,” Matevosyan said on social media.

Global biodiversity conservation goals must be translated into national policies, investment decisions, and practical measures that deliver measurable results, COP17 President and Armenia’s Minister of Environment Hambardzum Matevosyan said during a high-level meeting held as part of COP17 in Yerevan.

He said the first global review of collective progress in implementing the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework is important because it will make it possible to assess the results achieved, identify areas where progress is insufficient, and understand what support countries need.

“The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework gives us a common direction. At COP17, we must translate its goals and targets into national policies, investment decisions, and practical measures that deliver measurable results,” Matevosyan said.

He noted that decisions related to nature conservation are also made in the areas of finance, agriculture, water resource management, and economic development. Therefore, the involvement of leaders can unite countries around a common goal, strengthen the political significance of the Convention on Biological Diversity, and ensure the necessary attention to addressing urgent challenges.

“Political attention must also be maintained during the negotiations to build on the achievements made, make additional efforts, and find mutually acceptable solutions. The presence of ministers must make a practical difference by helping resolve issues that remain unresolved during technical discussions,” he said.

Matevosyan added that Armenia, as the COP17 host country and Presidency, expects the active and constructive engagement of ministers and heads of delegations to overcome remaining differences, bring positions closer together, and establish the political guidance needed to reach agreement.

He assured that Armenia’s Presidency would continue to listen to all parties in order to reach common solutions.

“We have an obligation to future generations to act decisively while our decisions can still change the situation. Taking action for nature is our shared responsibility here in Yerevan. Let us fulfill this responsibility together,” Matevosyan added.

Astrid Schomaker, Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), compared international cooperation in biodiversity negotiations to the Armenian Kochari, in which dancers move together to a shared rhythm, during a high-level meeting held as part of COP17.

“Like the Armenian Kochari, where people join hands and find a common rhythm, each dancer has their place and takes their own steps, but the dance only works when everyone moves together. That is the spirit we need in these negotiations,” Schomaker said.

According to Schomaker, countries participate in the negotiations with different national circumstances, commitments and priorities. However, reaching an agreement does not require all countries to take the same steps; what is needed is to find a common rhythm and move forward together.

She noted that four years ago in Montreal, countries agreed on the historic goal of halting and reversing biodiversity loss by 2030.

“The world pays twice when public funds are directed toward financing activities that harm nature and later has to pay for the consequences of degraded land, polluted water and the loss of ecosystem resilience. Healthy ecosystems are the foundation of people’s livelihoods. More funding for nature is needed, but at the same time, existing funding must serve nature conservation,” she said.

According to the CBD Executive Secretary, the negotiations have entered a decisive phase, and difficult political issues remain that require leadership to resolve.

“The decisions taken in Yerevan must reflect the scale of the challenges we face and the opportunities being created. Let us leave Yerevan with decisions on paper and with a different approach to nature conservation and financing,” she added.

The high-level segment of the 17th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP17) to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity opened with a plenary session attended by ministers and heads of delegations.

Armenian Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Trade Robert Abisoghomonyan told reporters that the discussions focus on policy priorities for biodiversity conservation and financing issues.

He said that two panel discussions are planned as part of the high-level segment. The first is dedicated to policy issues related to biodiversity conservation, while the second focuses on biodiversity financing.

The plenary session will continue on October 28 with national statements by countries.

“We have around 150 high-level participants from the Parties, as well as around 50 high-level participants from international organizations,” Abisoghomonyan said, adding that, in addition to the plenary discussions, ministers are also participating in numerous side events.

The Deputy FM said that launch ceremonies for COP17 Presidency initiatives are also scheduled for these two days. He recalled that an initiative to replace incentives that negatively affect biodiversity with positive incentives was launched on October 26.

On the morning of October 27, the establishment of a biodiversity technology hub was also announced.

He said that, to assess progress in implementing commitments in the field of biodiversity, countries need to submit reports, the preparation of which requires the collection and processing of large amounts of data.

“Modern technologies and artificial intelligence need to be used for data collection. Armenia has initiated this process jointly with a number of partners. We hope it will be sustained and that we will be able to implement it, especially in developing countries, which face major difficulties in collecting data and submitting proper reports,” he said.

According to Abisoghomonyan, the initiative may also contribute to the first review of progress in implementing the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework and to addressing the gaps identified by 2030.

Asked what he considers the main achievement of Armenia’s presidency to be at the end of the ministerial conference, Abisoghomonyan said it was difficult to single out one result, given the scale of the discussions and the diversity of initiatives.

“During this period, we have discussed more than 50 documents, held more than 400 side events and dozens of parallel events, as well as advanced our four initiatives. Each of them contributes to addressing the challenges facing the sector. The ‘Yerevan Call for Action’ initiative is also being discussed now. It is included in the draft decision and aims to provide countries with a roadmap for carrying out further work. One of the initiative’s goals is also to ensure a continuous process of addressing the issues and challenges facing the field of biodiversity,” he added.

Asked whether representatives of Armenia’s neighboring countries are participating in the high-level segment, Abisoghomonyan said that Georgia is represented at the conference at the level of its Minister of Environmental Protection and Agriculture, while Türkiye is represented at the level of its Deputy Minister of Environment.

Efforts to conserve biodiversity must begin with education, developing learners’ environmental awareness, critical thinking and responsible behaviour from an early age, Armenian Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sport Zhanna Andreasyan said at a Biodiversity Education Day event held during COP17.

“Biodiversity loss is one of the most serious challenges of our time. Addressing it requires not only effective environmental policy but also knowledge, responsibility and the active involvement of all sections of society. In this context, education becomes a key tool for fostering an informed attitude towards nature and the skills needed to protect it.

“For Armenia, the biodiversity conservation agenda is particularly important, given our country’s rich biodiversity and natural ecosystems, which are an important national asset and require a consistent, long-term conservation policy,” the minister said, stressing Armenia’s commitment to developing biodiversity education.

According to a statement from the ministry, Andreasyan highlighted the importance of strengthening the role of education for sustainable development, integrating environmental knowledge into learning and strengthening learners’ connections with nature and their communities.

The minister said education should go beyond imparting theoretical knowledge and enable learners to apply what they have learnt by participating in environmental initiatives.

She also stressed the significance of the Global Plan of Action for Education on Biodiversity (GPA-EB), highlighting the need for effective cooperation between national education policies, environmental initiatives, civil society, young people, local communities and international organisations.

The event was held under the theme “Biodiversity Education for Transformative Change: Implementing the Kunming–Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework through Education and Practical Action”.

Changing people’s attitudes towards nature

Astrid Schomaker, Executive Secretary of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, also stressed the importance of education in conserving biodiversity and developing environmental awareness, placing particular emphasis on young people’s active involvement. She also addressed the new action plan for biodiversity education, describing it as an important guide for coordinating international efforts.

António Abreu, Director of UNESCO’s Division of Ecological and Earth Sciences, stressed that achieving biodiversity conservation goals required changes in people’s attitudes and behaviour towards nature.

“We cannot achieve the ambitious goals of the Global Biodiversity Framework without changing how people perceive and value their relationship with nature. Education is a fundamental prerequisite for this transformation,” Abreu said, stressing that education must extend beyond classrooms, linking knowledge with practical action and nature conservation with people’s everyday lives.

Thematic discussions

Biodiversity Education Day will include thematic discussions and interactive workshops on integrating biodiversity topics into different levels of education, developing teachers’ capacities, innovative approaches to environmental education and expanding community involvement.

Participants in the discussions include representatives of state institutions, international and non-governmental organisations, educational institutions, youth initiatives and the environmental sector.

One of the event’s key topics is the draft Global Plan of Action for Education on Biodiversity, which aims to promote knowledge of biodiversity, develop capacities for nature conservation and encourage broad public participation.

The event’s main organisers are the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Commission on Education and Communication (IUCN CEC) and Armenia’s COP17 presidency.

Armstat’s work on environmental statistics and the System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA) was presented on 27 October in the Armenia Hall of the Blue Zone at COP17, which is continuing in Yerevan. Speakers at the event, entitled “From Environmental Statistics to Sustainable Development”, discussed the importance of using statistical data in environmental analysis and research.

Nelli Baghdasaryan, a member of Armenia’s State Council on Statistics, presented the national reporting platform for Sustainable Development Goal indicators. She noted that reports were available for 261 of the 306 indicators (85 per cent), including 35 global and seven national environmental indicators.

The importance of regularly updating indicators and monitoring progress was emphasised. The presentation also outlined SEEA’s role in bringing environmental and economic data together within a single framework to assess natural resource use, environmental pressures and expenditure on measures to address them.

According to Baghdasaryan, Armenia’s Statistical Committee has been compiling water-related indicators since 2015, while work on developing air emissions accounts is continuing.

Baghdasaryan also presented the application of the Classification of Environmental Purposes (CEP) to modernise environmental expenditure statistics and develop Environmental Protection Expenditure Accounts (EPEA). Introducing CEP will help modernise the collection of environmental expenditure data and support the gradual development of EPEA.

It was stressed that integrating data could improve environmental policy evaluation, the analysis of expenditure and investment, and the evidence underpinning biodiversity conservation decisions, supporting the monitoring of progress towards the goals of the Kunming–Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.

Improving data quality and methodologies, strengthening interagency cooperation and securing continued support from the international expert community were identified as priorities.

“Statistics are more than a collection of numbers and data. Our aim is also to answer specific questions and provide decision-makers with comprehensive, integrated information. In other words, statistics must provide the basis and material for analysis, which requires complete, detailed data. We obtain environmental data mainly from administrative registers, including information provided by the Ministry of Environment on waste, air emissions and water use,” Baghdasaryan told an Armenpress correspondent.

Karen Aghababyan, a representative of the BirdLinks Armenia NGO, presented issues concerning the standardisation of biodiversity data for SEEA. He outlined the main categories of data required: ecosystem extent and condition; species and taxonomic diversity; physical and monetary flows of ecosystem services; and economic and institutional responses. He also addressed data on species distribution, abundance and Red List status.