Seventeenth Meeting of the Conference of the Parties

YEREVAN, 28 October 2026 – "Your Excellency, President of the seventeenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties, Excellencies, distinguished delegates,

"UNICEF thanks the Republic of Armenia for hosting this important meeting and for its leadership on biodiversity and climate action.

"Biodiversity loss is not only an environmental crisis. It is a child rights crisis. Children depend on healthy ecosystems for clean air and water, nutritious food, protection from disease and disasters, and their physical and mental well-being. Yet they are among the least responsible for environmental degradation and among the most affected by it.

"Children must therefore be recognized not only as vulnerable, but as partners and agents of change.

"UNICEF calls on Parties and partners to take four decisive actions:

• First, embed children’s rights and child-sensitive, age-disaggregated indicators in National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans, monitoring frameworks and financing decisions.
• Second, invest in nature-based solutions and ecosystem restoration that protect the services children rely on, including schools, health facilities, water systems, food and nutrition systems and social protection.
• Third, expand biodiversity education and ensure the meaningful participation of children, young people and women in decisions at local, national and global levels.
• Fourth, direct biodiversity finance toward measurable outcomes for children and women, especially those with disabilities, living in poverty, rural communities and Indigenous communities.
• The success of the global biodiversity framework will be measured not only in hectares protected or restored, but in healthier, safer and more resilient lives for ALL children and women.

"Let us make biodiversity action child-responsive by design, adequately financed and accountable. By protecting nature, we protect the right of every child to survive, develop and thrive.

"Thank you."