What changed
Nearly 200 countries agreed a new nature action plan early Saturday in Yerevan, after admitting they are falling behind the biodiversity targets adopted in 2022.
The gap is stark: only one of those 24 targets is currently on track, including the promise to protect 30% of the world’s land and seas by 2030. More than $1bn was pledged at the meeting, with half coming from philanthropists including Re:wild.
Why it matters
The deal gives governments a course correction, but not yet a funded route to the finish line. In 2022, countries aimed to provide $30bn in public money and mobilise another $170bn from private sources for nature by 2030. The latest pledge is a useful start, but it leaves a large financial gap.
Governments also acknowledged a contradiction at the heart of the effort: they are trying to spend more on restoring nature while continuing subsidies that damage it. One example under discussion is support for large-scale fishing, including harmful trawling.
There is evidence that conservation can work. Countries have placed 252m hectares of degraded land into protection, an area larger than Greenland, while elephants, green sea turtles and tigers have recovered in some places. The practical test now is whether the new plan turns that progress into a faster, better-funded effort before 2030.
The details still matter. The agreement does not yet specify country-level allocations or enforcement, and it is unclear how much of the pledged money is genuinely new or when it will arrive.
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