The 17th Conference of the Parties (COP17) to the Convention on Biological Diversity will be held in Yerevan, Armenia, from 19 to 30 October 2026. Armenia's government has been preparing to host since being confirmed as the venue, and the city is already carrying the conference's visual identity into public space — including the COP17 sculpture now installed in central Yerevan.

What's on the table

COP17 will convene Parties alongside international organisations, indigenous peoples and local communities, scientists, and civil society to carry out the first global review of collective progress on the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework since its adoption in 2022. The conference will run alongside the 12th Meeting of the Parties to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety and the 6th Meeting of the Parties to the Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit-Sharing.

Agenda items include resource mobilisation and the financial mechanism, the monitoring framework for the Kunming-Montreal targets, digital sequence information on genetic resources, synthetic biology, and a new Gender Action Plan — alongside the recurring questions of biodiversity's links to climate change, agriculture, and invasive species.

— Astrid Schomaker, Executive Secretary, Convention on Biological Diversity

Why this Symposium sits where it does

This Symposium convenes for up to 200 delegates immediately before COP17 opens — close enough to carry the Working Groups' Yerevan Call to Action directly into the conference, while governments and observer organisations are still finalising their positions.