Many MindedNature pledges reach $1.8 billion in Yerevan, dwarfed by subsidies that harm it
At COP17, the UN biodiversity conference in Yerevan, Armenia, the COP17 president and Armenian environment minister Hambardzum Matevosyan put new nature-finance announcements at about $1.8 billion on Oct. 26. The Netherlands committed $500 million to the Tropical Forest Forever Facility, and the Global Environment Facility said it had assembled another $500 million, about $60 million of it for the Global Biodiversity Framework Fund. The Species Recovery Alliance pledged $500 million for threatened species on Oct. 16. The Value Nature Fund announced €300 million (about $334 million) for regenerative practices on forests and farms in Europe and North America, and Germany announced a €300 million public-private package for the Legacy Landscapes Fund on Oct. 27.
The Tropical Forest Forever Facility, launched at the 2025 UN climate conference, rewards tropical forest countries for low deforestation. At least 20% of its payments are meant to go to Indigenous Peoples and local communities.
The scale gap is the story. UNEP's State of Finance for Nature 2026 found about $1 spent protecting nature for every $30 spent destroying it, with nature-negative support at $7.3 trillion a year. Target 18 of the Kunming-Montreal framework, adopted in 2022 by 196 parties, calls for cutting $500 billion a year in harmful subsidies. Redirecting even part of that would matter more than new pledges for the food, water and climate stability that ecosystems underpin.
The record so far is weak. The framework targets at least $200 billion a year in biodiversity finance, and an OECD report suggests 2025 finance was no more than $92 billion. North-to-South flows appear to have missed their 2025 goal by about $4 billion. Funding for protected-area setup and management fell from $1.2 billion in 2023 to $1 billion in 2025. The article's summary says the Cali Fund holds only about $10,000 against a $1 billion annual aim, that 22 of 23 targets are behind schedule, and that under 20% of land is protected. Those summary figures, and the OECD estimates, are not confirmed in detail, and outcomes remain at the negotiation stage. Watch for any subsidy-reform commitments.
Source: Mongabay