YEREVAN, Oct. 17 (Xinhua) -- The Yerevan Declaration was adopted at a biodiversity leaders' summit in the Armenian capital on Friday, calling for stronger international cooperation and accelerated efforts to halt and reverse biodiversity loss.
Held ahead of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP17), the summit brought together heads of state and government, alongside representatives of international organizations, local communities and other stakeholders.
Armenian Environment Minister and COP17 President-designate Hambardzum Matevosyan presented the declaration, entitled "Taking Action for Nature," as the summit's outcome document.
The declaration reaffirmed commitments to the Convention on Biological Diversity and to the effective implementation of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, with its mission of halting and reversing biodiversity loss by 2030 and its vision of living in harmony with nature by 2050.
While welcoming growing global mobilization for biodiversity, it said the first global report on the framework's implementation showed that collective efforts and progress remained insufficient and that accelerated implementation was urgently needed.
In the declaration, leaders committed to strengthening national implementation through whole-of-government and whole-of-society approaches, in accordance with national circumstances, priorities and capabilities. They also committed to integrating biodiversity considerations into public policies and economic sectors and strengthening the conservation, restoration, management and sustainable use of terrestrial, freshwater, coastal and marine ecosystems.
The declaration also set out commitments to strengthen monitoring, planning, reporting and review, improve biodiversity data and knowledge systems, and promote science-based decision-making and the responsible use of innovative technology.
On financing, it stressed the need to mobilize increased public and private funding for biodiversity from all sources, ensuring that funding is adequate, predictable, timely and accessible. It also emphasized capacity-building, scientific and technical cooperation, access to and transfer of technology, and innovation, alongside stronger international partnerships to support implementation in developing countries, particularly the least developed and small-island developing ones.
It looked ahead to the first global review of collective progress in implementing the framework as an important milestone for strengthening transparency, accountability and collective learning, addressing implementation gaps, promoting effective solutions and accelerating action.
The declaration also called for an effective, results-oriented outcome in Yerevan, with a clear pathway toward accelerated implementation of the framework and achievement of its targets. ■
