The 17th Biodiversity COP brings together nearly 200 countries in Armenia to try to relaunch nature protection efforts

The 17th Biodiversity COP opens on Sunday October 18 in Yerevan, Armenia, with a major challenge: stopping the destruction of nature. Nearly 200 countries have come together to relaunch efforts to protect life. And there is still a lot of work.

A few days ago, the Secretary General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, presented an assessment of global progress for biodiversity. “The report shows a gap between ambitions and the actions actually undertaken. The war we are waging against nature is not yet over,” he warned.

“There comes a time when you have to checkout.”

We must accelerate to keep the commitments made four years ago in Montreal, in particular the flagship objective for 2030: making 30% of lands and oceans protected areas. We are not there, explains Jean Burkard, WWF advocacy director: “The figures are roughly 18% of the land and 12% of the sea today. What is blocking it is the same thing as for the climate: there is a moment when we have to pay.”

Because protecting nature is expensive: encouraging farmers to change practices, building differently to artificialize less... It's a whole well-established system that needs to be reviewed. “There is always one euro that is spent to repair nature and, conversely, thirty-three euros to destroy it. Very concretely, when you support industrial agriculture, you will encourage deforestation, you will encourage the use of pesticides on a massive scale,” believes Jean Burkard.

One example among many: every year, governments spend $2.6 trillion on subsidies that are harmful to nature.