The world has a new plan to save nature, but it still needs the money

The world is set to miss its 2030 conservation goals as finance and action have fallen short, leaders recognized at a UN biodiversity summit in Armenia’s capital, where they agreed to step up efforts after a final overnight session.

在亚美尼亚首都举行的联合国生物多样性峰会上，各国领导人承认，由于资金和行动不足，全球恐将无法实现2030年的保护目标。在经过最后一晚的会议后，与会者同意加大工作力度。

Representatives from almost 200 countries gathered in Yerevan over the past two weeks to review progress on a landmark agreement set four years ago to protect about a third of the world’s land and seas by 2030.

过去两周，来自近200个国家的代表齐聚埃里温，审查四年前达成的一项里程碑式协议的进展情况。该协议旨在到2030年保护全球约三分之一的陆地和海洋。

The COP17 talks on biodiversity concluded on Saturday with a recognition that conservation efforts were so far too slow to realistically achieve the goals of the 2022 Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.

第17届生物多样性缔约方大会（COP17）于周六闭幕，会议承认目前的保护工作进展过于缓慢，难以切实实现2022年《昆明-蒙特利尔全球生物多样性框架》设定的目标。

A plan was agreed to accelerate progress ahead of the next summit in Ecuador in two years, dubbed the Yerevan Pathway. It would mean redoubling efforts to tackle subsidies and incentives that are harmful to nature, increasing financial, scientific, and technical support for developing countries, and strengthening monitoring and reporting mechanisms.

会议商定了一项名为“埃里温路径”（Yerevan Pathway）的计划，旨在为两年后在厄瓜多尔举行的下一次峰会加速推进工作。这意味着将加倍努力解决对自然有害的补贴和激励措施，增加对发展中国家的财政、科学和技术支持，并加强监测和报告机制。

Steven Guilbeault, former Canadian minister of environment and climate change, said that finance remained one of the biggest obstacles to achieving global biodiversity goals. The fact that a fund agreed at the last meeting—for companies profiting from genetic materials to voluntarily contribute to—stood largely empty was “especially disappointing.”

加拿大前环境与气候变化部长史蒂文·吉尔博（Steven Guilbeault）表示，资金仍然是实现全球生物多样性目标的最大障碍之一。上届会议商定设立的一项基金，旨在让从遗传资源中获利的公司自愿捐款，但该基金目前基本处于空置状态，这“尤其令人失望”。

“We need to mobilize substantially more public and private finance, reform subsidies that harm nature, and ensure that funding reaches the countries and communities on the front lines of the nature crisis,” he said.

他说：“我们需要动员更多的公共和私人资金，改革损害自然的补贴，并确保资金能够惠及处于自然危机前线的国家和社区。”

Catherine Weller, global policy director at the campaign group Fauna & Flora, said the Yerevan agreement was welcome but also noted that funding fell far short of a pledge that had been a key part of the 2022 deal. “In a world of trillionaires, we can certainly afford to spend $200 billion a year on protecting and restoring the very thing keeping us all alive: nature,” she said.

环保组织“动植物国际”（Fauna & Flora）的全球政策总监凯瑟琳·韦勒（Catherine Weller）表示，埃里温协议值得欢迎，但也指出目前的资金缺口与2022年协议中的关键承诺相去甚远。她说：“在一个拥有万亿富翁的世界里，我们完全有能力每年花费2000亿美元来保护和恢复维持我们生存的基础——自然。”

Conference organizers said governments, philanthropists, and businesses had announced close to $2 billion in new financial commitments to coincide with the Armenian gathering. This included a commitment by the Netherlands to contribute $500 million to the Tropical Forest Forever Facility, a Brazilian initiative to pay countries to keep their forests standing.

会议组织者表示，各国政府、慈善家和企业已宣布了近20亿美元的新财政承诺，以配合此次亚美尼亚峰会。其中包括荷兰承诺向“热带森林永续基金”（Tropical Forest Forever Facility）捐款5亿美元，该基金是巴西发起的一项倡议，旨在向保护森林的国家提供资金。

The pledge was announced in the Dutch parliament the day after Brazilian leader Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was re-elected as president, to the relief of many attending the biodiversity summit.

这一承诺是在巴西领导人路易斯·伊纳西奥·卢拉·达席尔瓦（Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva）连任总统后的第二天在荷兰议会宣布的，这让许多参加生物多样性峰会的人感到宽慰。

After the close of the conference, Carina Pimenta, Brazil’s national secretary for bioeconomy, highlighted Lula’s record of protecting the Amazon rainforest and spoke of hope. “At a time of growing global uncertainty, the Yerevan Declaration sends a powerful message: world leaders recognize that protecting biodiversity is essential to food security, livelihoods, and economic resilience,” she said.

会议结束后，巴西生物经济国家秘书卡琳娜·皮门塔（Carina Pimenta）强调了卢拉在保护亚马逊雨林方面的记录，并表达了希望。她说：“在全球不确定性日益增加的时刻，《埃里温宣言》传递了一个强有力的信息：世界各国领导人认识到，保护生物多样性对于粮食安全、生计和经济韧性至关重要。”

A growing number of countries to have drawn up national diversity plans, and the new pledge to the Brazilian fund, were “reasons for cautious optimism,” said Brian O’Donnell, director at Campaign for Nature. But international funding for protected and conserved areas has fallen in a number of countries over years of disruption from war and high energy prices, with a 27 percent decline in environmental funding for the 2026-30 period.

“自然运动”（Campaign for Nature）组织总监布莱恩·奥唐奈（Brian O’Donnell）表示，越来越多的国家制定了国家生物多样性计划，加上对巴西基金的新承诺，这些都是“谨慎乐观的理由”。然而，由于战争和高能源价格带来的多年动荡，许多国家的保护区国际资金有所下降，2026-30年期间的环境资金预计将减少27%。