Key facts
- Conference organizers said governments, philanthropists and businesses announced close to $2 billion in new commitments tied to the Yerevan gathering.
- The Netherlands pledged $500 million to the Tropical Forest Forever Facility, a Brazilian initiative to pay countries to keep forests standing.
- Fauna & Flora's Catherine Weller said funding fell far short of a pledge that was a key part of the 2022 deal.
- Environmental funding for protected and conserved areas fell 27 percent for the 2026-30 period, the report said.
- Campaign for Nature's Brian O'Donnell cited national biodiversity plans and the Brazilian fund pledge as reasons for cautious optimism.
Governments, philanthropists and businesses announced close to $2 billion in new financial commitments to coincide with a biodiversity conference in Yerevan, Armenia, organizers said. The total included a $500 million pledge from the Netherlands to the Tropical Forest Forever Facility, a Brazilian initiative that pays countries to keep their forests standing.
The Dutch pledge was announced in the Dutch parliament the day after Brazilian leader Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was re-elected as president, a result that relieved many attending the summit.
Catherine Weller, global policy director at the campaign group Fauna & Flora, said the Yerevan agreement was welcome but 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.
After the conference closed, Carina Pimenta, Brazil's national secretary for bioeconomy, cited Lula's record of protecting the Amazon rainforest. "At a time of growing global uncertainty, the Yerevan Declaration sends a powerful message: world leaders recognise that protecting biodiversity is essential to food security, livelihoods and economic resilience," she said.
Brian O'Donnell, director at Campaign for Nature, said a growing number of countries drawing up national biodiversity plans and the new pledge to the Brazilian fund were reasons for cautious optimism. 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.