What Is IIED Asking for at the UN Biodiversity Summit (CBD COP17)?

IIED is using CBD COP17 to push for pledges to be turned into practical, equitable action that supports the priorities of Indigenous Peoples and local communities. The 17th UN biodiversity conference runs from 19–30 October in Yerevan, Armenia, and IIED and its partners are attending the meeting. That is the core of IIED's stated position at the summit: implementation and equity, not new promises.

What IIED has said about its COP17 aims

IIED frames COP17 as "a pivotal moment for global action to reverse biodiversity loss." Its stated ask is to move from commitments to delivery in a way that is practical and fair, with the priorities of Indigenous Peoples and local communities treated as central rather than peripheral.

The organisation's wider biodiversity work points in the same direction. Its six priorities include championing community-led nature governance and stewardship, and promoting forest, farm and fisheries systems that feed and nourish people and planet. At COP17, those priorities translate into an emphasis on who makes decisions about nature and who benefits from protecting it.

Where to find IIED and its partners at COP17

IIED has published an event listing for COP17 showing where it and its partners can be found during the conference. If you are attending or following the summit remotely, that listing is the practical entry point for sessions involving IIED.

The summit sits alongside other IIED work on the same themes. Recent items on the site include:

• Locally led finance for nature — estimating finance flows to local actors for conserving and restoring nature (12 October 2026)
• Making subsidy reform work for nature, climate and people — an article (14 October 2026)
• Women's tenure rights for gender-responsive coherence across the Rio Conventions — an insight by Karen Wong Pérez and Omaira Bolaños (14 October 2026)

Together these indicate the kind of practical, equity-focused action IIED is arguing for at COP17: finance that reaches local actors, subsidy reform that works for nature and people, and tenure rights that connect the biodiversity, climate and desertification conventions.

How this fits IIED's broader role

IIED describes itself as an independent research organisation that delivers positive change on a global scale. Its work is organised around six priorities: helping migrants and displaced people; shifting trade, finance and investment to benefit people and planet; evolving cities as places of inspiration and justice; promoting forest, farm and fisheries systems; transforming climate action and governance; and championing community-led nature governance.

Its COP17 position follows from that structure. The summit is treated as a test of whether global pledges become equitable action on the ground, with Indigenous Peoples and local communities at the centre of both the decisions and the benefits.

What to watch for

If you want to track whether IIED's ask is being met, the useful signals are the same ones its work highlights: whether finance flows to local actors, whether subsidy reform advances, and whether tenure rights are reflected in how the Rio Conventions are implemented together. IIED's COP17 event listing is the place to follow its sessions and partner events during the conference.