Where to find IIED and partners at COP17: event listing

Conference

The 17th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP17) will be held from 19 to 30 October 2026 in Yerevan, Armenia, preceded by the 6th meeting of the Subsidiary Body on Implementation (16-19 February). IIED researchers and partners will be attending all events, to ensure local priorities help shape decision making.

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6th Meeting of the CBD SBI Subsidiary Body on Implementation
Monday 16 to Thursday 19 February 2026
Rome, Italy

28th Meeting of the CBD Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice
Monday 27 July to Saturday 1 August 2026
Nairobi, Kenya

CBD COP17
Monday 19- to Friday 30 October 2026
Yerevan, Armenia
Collection
UN climate change conference (COP31)
A series of pages related to IIED's activities at the 2026 UNFCCC climate change summit in Turkey
Last updated 25 February 2026
A group of women farmers, with their backs to the camera, bend over to plant on a sandy field.

Women farmers plant onions in Tamil Nadu, India. IIED is seeking to ensure international funding reaches Indigenous Peoples and local communities directly (Photo: IWMI/Hamish John Appleby, via Flickr, CC BY-NC 2.0)

The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) Subsidiary Body on Implementation (SBI) met in Rome in February, which will be followed by the meeting of the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice (SBSTTA) in Nairobi from 27 July to 1 August and the 7th meeting of the SBI in Nairobi from 4-12 August, marking key milestones on the road to the 17th UN biodiversity conference (COP17) in Armenia later in the year.

CBD COP17 logo.These moments will be critical for assessing progress on delivering the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) and for shaping how commitments on finance, monitoring and inclusive implementation translate into action on the ground.

IIED and partners will engage at key moments on the road to COP17, including the SBI and SBSTTA meetings, to help turn the global biodiversity framework into action on the ground, backed by evidence and solutions grounded in local experience.

We will push for gender-just, community-led action, with finance and decision-making power shifted to the people most impacted by biodiversity loss.

Our engagement at SBI will focus on four critical themes:

  1. Get money to where it’s needed most: reforming biodiversity finance systems so that funding reaches Indigenous Peoples and local communities directly, transparently and on their own terms
  2. Make all voices heard: gender-just implementation of biodiversity governance by supporting community-generated, gender-responsive data and Indigenous knowledge systems to inform GBF implementation and monitoring
  3. Realise the value of nature: strengthen planning, monitoring and reporting so they reflect the full value of nature, including diverse value systems, rights and social outcomes, not just headline indicators, and
  4. Challenge unfair economics: reform finance systems by reducing flows of harmful subsidies and incentivising locally-led stewardship that sustains nature and livelihoods.

Events at the 6th Meeting of the CBD SBI

Tuesday 17 February

Are women-led organisations the missing partners for global biodiversity framework implementation and global review?

Press conference

Hosted by: CBD Women’s Caucus, IIED
Speakers: Amelia Arreguin Prado, Shruti Ajit (CBD Women's Caucus), Ceire Booth (UNEP), Venge Nyirongo (UN Women), Marina Lopez (Guatemala gender focal point), Karen Wong Perez (IIED)

As parties took critical decisions to shape how the global biodiversity framework is implemented at SBI-6, questions of who produces biodiversity data, how it is used, and whose knowledge counts were central to ensuring implementation is inclusive, effective and accountable. This includes whether commitments to gender equality are being translated into concrete actions, adequate resources and results.

This press conference launched a new report highlighting the ways in which women-led and community-based organisations are generating vital, gender-responsive biodiversity data through their everyday engagement with ecosystems and governance processes – only for formal decision-making spaces to fail to use this data when setting policies.

Related reading: Advancing gender justice in biodiversity data and policy (PDF) |  Advancing gender justice in biodiversity data and policy through women-led data collection and evidence generation

Further reading

Transforming nature finance for people, nature and climate: IIED’s nature finance strategy, 2025-2030, (2025) IIED project flyer 

Challenging coloniality and racial injustice in finance for nature, Nicola Sorsby, Natalie Lartey, Krystyna Swiderska, Mohsen Gul, Michael Lomotey (2026) IIED working paper

Insight: Nature finance: some progress at COP30 with more needed in 2026, Nicola Sorsby, Ebony Holland (December 2025)

Project: Connecting social protection with fisheries management and conservation

Project: Incentives for coastal conservation and fisheries management

Incentives for coastal stewardship in Tanzania, Kate West, Emma Etchells, Kokubanza Timanywa, Peadar Brehony (2025)

Blue social protection handbook: protecting people, fish and food, Annabelle Bladon, Gunilla Greig, Yuko Okamura, Gianluigi Nico (2025), World Bank report

Infograhic: Leveraging social protection and labor market interventions for sustainable fisheries (PDF), World Bank

Insight: Compromises, challenges and more unfinished business at COP16’s reconvened biodiversity talks, Karen Wong Pérez, Anna Ducros (March 2025)

News: Historic platform for Indigenous Peoples, but finance failure at COP16 (November 2024)

Contact

Oliver Arnold-Richards ([email protected]), strategic campaigns manager, IIED's Communications Group