Mexico COP17 biodiversity commitment, Digi Mart USA News (Yerevan, Armenia): Mexico’s government reaffirmed its commitment to the conservation and restoration of ecosystems, the sustainable use of biodiversity and environmental justice during its participation in the Seventeenth Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP17), held from October 19 to 30 in Yerevan, Armenia.
The Mexican delegation was led by Marina Robles García, undersecretary for Biodiversity and Environmental Restoration of the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (Semarnat), on behalf of Secretary Alicia Bárcena Ibarra. The delegation also included Raúl Jiménez Rosenberg, executive secretary of the National Commission for the Knowledge and Use of Biodiversity (Conabio), along with officials from Conabio, the Foreign Ministry (SRE) and other participating institutions.
The conference assessed international progress toward the 23 targets of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, adopted in 2022, and aimed to strengthen collective efforts to halt and reverse biodiversity loss by 2030. One of the main achievements of the Mexican delegation was the presentation of the first global report on implementation progress, titled State of Biodiversity Action, prepared under the auspices of the Convention.
According to the report, about 90% of Parties have set national biodiversity targets and around 60% have national strategies and action plans. However, fewer than half of the evaluated national targets are on track, which the publisher article states shows the need to accelerate conservation, restoration and sustainable use efforts.
Parties adopted 14 decisions under the Convention and its Cartagena and Nagoya Protocols, advancing issues including biosafety, invasive alien species and gender equality, among others. Robles García stressed during the high-level plenary segment that biodiversity conservation is inseparable from social justice and the recognition of the rights of communities that inhabit and protect these territories.
She noted that the Humanist Ecological and Environmental Policy of the government of President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo recognizes the close relationship between protecting natural heritage, community wellbeing and sustainable, socially fair development. Mexico again called for stronger multilateral cooperation and full, effective participation of Indigenous peoples and local communities, respecting their rights and traditional knowledge.
Mexico presented progress on its National Biodiversity Strategy and on Target 3 of the Global Framework, which aims to effectively conserve at least 30% of terrestrial, inland water, marine and coastal areas by 2030. The delegation highlighted the contribution of 232 federal Natural Protected Areas and Areas Voluntarily Dedicated to Conservation, and progress on the preparation of a National Environmental Restoration Program.
On financing, one of the central issues of COP17, new contributions of approximately US$60.22 million were announced for the Global Biodiversity Framework Fund, administered by the Global Environment Facility (GEF), from Germany, Iceland, Monaco, the province of Quebec and the city of Berlin. The fund has programmed more than US$362 million for projects in 87 countries.
Semarnat and the National Commission of Natural Protected Areas (Conanp) presented efforts to strengthen the financial sustainability and effective management of protected areas, including MEx30x30, one of the first projects financed by the Global Framework fund, and the ACCIÓN project, funded by the Green Climate Fund, which promotes ecosystem-based adaptation on the Yucatán Peninsula. Mexico also highlighted the Gran Selva Maya Biocultural Corridor, a cooperation initiative with Guatemala and Belize formalized through the Calakmul Declaration of August 2025.
Mexico stated that the government will continue advancing an environmental agenda linking ecosystem conservation and restoration with social justice, community participation, scientific knowledge and international cooperation through 2030.
