Since 1970, the number of vertebrate animals in the world has decreased by 73%, and this process does not stop. Adil Najam, President of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF International), on Monday stated this at the plenary session of the 17th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP17) to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, underway in Armenia’s capital, Yerevan.

He noted that despite the worrying trends, extensive and important work is being done around the world. According to him, the more than doubling of the tiger population, the recovery of the number of sea turtles, and some other examples indicate that changes are quite realistic.

Najam stated that it is about the science of hope, which provides a clear picture of what specific steps are needed to achieve such changes on a global scale.

Now is not the time to think long, the time has come to act, and that is why COP17 is so important, he noted.

In turn, Guido Broekhoven, WWF International's Head of Multilateral Policy, said that COP17 should outline a realistic path to achieving the goal agreed in 2022: to allocate $30 billion annually in international financing for biodiversity by the year 2030.

He noted that this process should be accompanied by more active mobilization of resources at the national level and an expansion of the donor community.

Broekhoven recalled that under the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, countries have agreed to reduce and redirect—by the year 2030—at least $500 billion annually in economic incentives and subsidies that harm nature.

Celine Beaulieu, WWF International's Head of Public Sector Partnerships, for her part, emphasized that the current discussions in Yerevan on financing biodiversity conservation should focus on the main question: do financial flows provide everything that countries need to move from their commitments under the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework to practical implementation? It is impossible to create a reliable action plan without stable financial guarantees, she said.

The amount of global financing for biodiversity conservation is estimated at about $75-92 billion annually, with the share of public funds making up about $16 billion annually. Funding is growing, but the scale and quality of it still fall short of the ambitious goals agreed by governments, Beaulieu stated.

Governments need a clear plan to mobilize at least $200 billion a year from all sources by the year 2030, including at least $30 billion a year in international funding, she said.

It is not just about raising resources, but also about effectively distributing and using them to meet the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. In addition, one cannot finance nature conservation with one hand and its destruction with the other, the WWF International official added.