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Kaveh Zahedi, FAO Assistant Director-General and Director of its Office of Climate Change, Biodiversity and Environment, said that by hosting events such as COP17, Armenia demonstrates its potential and what it is capable of achieving, adding that the benefits would be felt by the international community for many years to come.
Armenia, which holds the presidency of COP17, will host the 17th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity in Yerevan on October 19–30.
“My first impressions are excellent. It is clear that COP17 is very well organized. You can feel it as soon as you enter the venue, and it is evident during the discussions. This is important because it lays the foundation for truly meaningful dialogue. In general, progress is at the heart of COP discussions. I think all the conditions have been created for this conference to be very successful,” Zahedi told reporters on the sidelines of the COP17 Leaders’ Summit in Yerevan.
He emphasized that the Armenian side does not want simply to host the event but seeks to initiate practical steps that will continue after COP as well. This concerns the implementation of all the solutions being discussed: how to finance these solutions, how to scale them up, and how to apply them in other places.
“Of course, it is also important to us that Armenia is a significant agricultural country. It has extraordinary genetic diversity in food crops, from ancient grapevines to cereal crops. And I think this is an opportunity to showcase this amazing diversity, food diversity, genetic diversity, biodiversity, and to build the future around it, including through initiatives that we have discussed with Armenian partners. We are interested in how biodiversity can be used sustainably, how resilience can be promoted, and how communities can be supported in matters related to food security,” Zahedi said.
He emphasized that he sees many opportunities for cooperation with Armenia, given the discussions taking place as part of COP17.
“This conference is dedicated to assessing the progress already achieved, and Armenia is also showing how much progress it has made. We help all countries, including Armenia, incorporate international standards into their national systems. The Armenian side must be able to closely monitor its own progress to understand where problems need to be addressed or where more investment is needed. This is very tangible progress that we are supporting by helping establish a detailed monitoring system that will provide a clear picture of the chosen path and the progress being made,” he said.
Zahedi said more investment is needed, particularly in agriculture and food systems, which can bring numerous benefits for food security, biodiversity, and climate change mitigation. He believes that solutions involving the restoration of degraded agricultural land and agroforestry can bring numerous benefits to countries such as Armenia.
“I think the number one challenge or concern at present is food security. It is being undermined for various reasons. One of them, of course, is climate change. Climate change brings unpredictability to our agricultural and food systems. We are witnessing increasingly frequent floods and droughts. There are other challenges related to conflicts in different parts of the world. All of this affects agriculture and food systems. All of this makes life more difficult for farmers and producers. Ultimately, this will have a cascading effect on food, agriculture, food security, and food prices. The key challenges are inextricably linked to biodiversity. It is impossible to separate food, food security, biodiversity, and food diversity from one another,” Zahedi noted.