South Africa has welcomed the adoption of the Yerevan Pathway for Accelerated Implementation, aimed at strengthening efforts to protect nature and mobilise investment in biodiversity.
The Pathway aims to tackle subsidies and incentives that harm nature and increase financial, scientific and technical support for developing countries. It also seeks to align national budgets and economic decisions with the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF) and strengthen implementation, monitoring, reporting and review mechanisms.
South Africa emphasised that successful implementation would require predictable financing, technology transfer, capacity-building and stronger scientific and technical cooperation, particularly for developing countries.
“Ambition without implementation support is not credible. The Yerevan Pathway provides an opportunity to correct course, but its success will depend on whether countries have the resources and capacity to translate commitments into tangible results that benefit biodiversity and people,” Deputy Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment Narend Singh said.
The Deputy Minister made the remarks on Sunday after leading the biodiversity finance negotiations at the 17th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD COP17). The conference took place in Yerevan, Armenia, from 19 to 30 October 2026.
During high-level political consultations with the COP17 Presidency, Singh emphasised South Africa’s position that proposals to broaden the contributor base for biodiversity finance must be informed by a thorough assessment of their historical, legal and practical implications. He also stressed the need to safeguard developed countries’ obligations under Article 20 of the Convention.
South Africa successfully advocated for an intersessional process. The adopted decision provides for a study and detailed analysis informed by consultations.
The findings will be submitted to the Subsidiary Body on Implementation ahead of COP18 to inform consideration of options for broadening the contributor base.
The Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment said the adoption of the Pathway was an important step towards addressing gaps identified in the first global review of the KMGBF.
The Pathway seeks to strengthen national implementation, improve monitoring and accountability, mobilise resources and promote greater policy coherence across government and society. These efforts aim to accelerate progress towards 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 to accelerate and scale up biodiversity action.
“South Africa also delivered a statement on behalf of the Group of Like-minded Megadiverse Countries and continued to advocate for fair and equitable benefit-sharing from the use of digital sequence information on genetic resources, including through the Cali Fund.
“The country further emphasised science-based decision-making in marine and coastal biodiversity conservation, sustainable wildlife management and greater policy coherence across the biodiversity, climate change and land degradation agendas,” the department said. –SAnews.gov.za
Source: Original report at SAnews.gov.za.
