🔶 biological diversity; Yerevan hosted the meeting the world was waiting for.
In 2022, the world community signed the "World Nature Agreement" in Montreal and set 23 goals until 2030.
The most important of these was the so-called "30x30" target, according to which at least 30% of the land and sea must be protected by 2030.
It was also decided to reduce environmentally harmful subsidies, such as government subsidies for fossil fuels, by $500 billion a year.
A report published shortly before the Yerevan summit described the environmental situation as alarming.
This report emphasizes that without a serious acceleration of the implementation of the commitments, it is not possible to reach these goals by 2030.
The negotiations at the United Nations Biodiversity Summit (COP17) in Yerevan were difficult and long, so that the final meeting lasted until the morning of Saturday, October 31. At the end of the work, the participating countries reached an agreement on an "action plan" to speed up the implementation of the "Nature Alliance". The World Environment Organization (WWF) called this agreement "the most important achievement" of the summit. Greenpeace has criticized that the Yerevan agreement does not match the scale of the crisis.
Catherine Weller from "Fauna and Flora" also said that she was not satisfied with the content of the agreement and said: "In any case, it is good that the countries reached an agreement at all."
A commitment to changing the direction of harmful subsidies, raising additional financial resources for nature protection and improving coordination between climate protection policy and biodiversity policy are among the achievements of the summit.
Iran is one of the countries struggling with the biodiversity crisis.
Lake Urmia, once one of the largest saline lakes in the world, has shrunk greatly in recent decades.
The Horkanin forests in northern Iran, listed on the UNESCO World Heritage List, are under pressure.
Species such as the Iranian cheetah, whose number reached less than 15 pieces, are on the verge of complete extinction. Iran is a member of the International Convention on Nature, but its implementation faces serious obstacles due to the government's underestimation of issues of this type and in the context of sanctions and economic crises.