The biodiversity leaders’ summit held in Armenia was the largest, most inclusive and wide-ranging leaders’ summit ever organised as part of the biodiversity conferences of the parties, Armenian Environment Minister Hambardzum Matevosyan said.
Speaking to reporters about the summit’s outcomes, he said Armenia had achieved its objective by organising a leaders’ summit before the start of formal COP17 negotiations. Participants included heads of state and government, leaders in the field and heads of international organisations.
“One of the main aims of the event and discussions was to increase COP17’s political impact and, more broadly, draw greater political attention to the biodiversity agenda,” Matevosyan said.
He stressed that the summit’s most important outcome was the Yerevan Declaration, which would provide political support for the COP17 negotiations.
“As COP17 President, I believe this document will be of crucial importance to Armenia’s presidency and our team’s work, providing political support that will allow negotiations to proceed more smoothly,” he said.
Matevosyan said one important area of the work ahead was cooperation with COP countries and political entities to determine what steps should be taken to conserve biodiversity over the next four years.
“We must identify the problems and also understand what work the world needs to undertake in this area over the coming four years. The Yerevan Declaration was the best starting point and represented important political support from leaders for COP17,” the minister added.
