Yerevan:South Africa has expressed its support for the adoption of the Yerevan Pathway for Accelerated Implementation, which aims to enhance efforts to protect nature and encourage investment in biodiversity. The Pathway specifically targets subsidies and incentives detrimental to nature while increasing financial, scientific, and technical support for developing countries.
According to South African Government News Agency, the Yerevan Pathway seeks to align national budgets and economic decisions with the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF) and improve implementation, monitoring, reporting, and review mechanisms. South Africa highlighted the necessity for predictable financing, technology transfer, capacity-building, and stronger scientific and technical cooperation to ensure the Pathway's success, particularly for developing nations.
Deputy Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, Narend Singh, stressed that ambition without implementation support lacks credibility. He noted that the Yerevan Pathway offers a chance to adjust course, but its success hinges on whether countries have the resources and capacity to convert commitments into tangible results benefiting biodiversity and people. Singh's remarks came after leading the biodiversity finance negotiations at the 17th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD COP17) in Yerevan, Armenia, from October 19 to 30, 2026.
During consultations with the COP17 Presidency, Singh underscored South Africa's stance that expanding the contributor base for biodiversity finance must be carefully assessed for its historical, legal, and practical implications. He also emphasized the importance of maintaining developed countries' commitments under Article 20 of the Convention. South Africa successfully advocated for an intersessional process, which includes a study and analysis to be submitted to the Subsidiary Body on Implementation before COP18.
The Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment stated that the Pathway's adoption is a crucial step in addressing gaps identified in the first global review of the KMGBF. The Pathway aims to boost national implementation, improve monitoring and accountability, and promote policy coherence to achieve the Framework's 23 targets by 2030 and four long-term goals by 2050. The KMGBF serves as a strategic mechanism for financing and cooperation, linking global ambition with practical conservation efforts. South Africa also advocated for equitable benefit-sharing from digital sequence information on genetic resources and emphasized science-based decision-making in various conservation areas.