On July 15, 2026, the second Global Nature Positive Summit successfully concluded in Kumamoto, Japan, with participating organizations adopting the historic "Kumamoto Declaration." The Declaration underlines the urgency of accelerating action—across all sectors, especially business and finance—towards the nature-positive goal to halt and reverse biodiversity loss, and to implement the targets of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.

Armenia and the region were represented at this prestigious summit by Ruben Khachatryan, Founder-Director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Wildlife and Cultural Assets (FPWC) and IUCN Regional Councillor for East Europe, North, and Central Asia.

Within the framework of the summit, on the initiative of Ruben Khachatryan, a key high-level meeting took place, attended by global leaders of the environmental sector and representatives of the diplomatic corps, such as Dr. Grethel Aguilar, Director General of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN); Atsuhiro Yoshinaka, IUCN Councillor for Japan (IUCN Regional Councillor for East Asia); Monica Simonyan, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Armenia to Japan, and others.

The discussions focused on joint steps to be taken ahead of the upcoming COP17 (the 17th Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity), which will be held in Yerevan in October 2026. In this context, Armenia's role in the global environmental agenda was highly appreciated, and prospects for expanding Armenian-Japanese partnership at both the public and private sector levels were outlined.

This year's summit stood out for its unprecedented participation, hosting 2,725 leaders and delegates from around the world. Notably, two-thirds of the participants represented the business and finance sectors, indicating that the private sector is increasingly viewing the conservation of natural capital not as a cost, but as a long-term investment and a guarantee of sustainability.

The Declaration, which has already been signed by 85 major organizations (half of which are from the private sector), calls for the implementation of science-based and standardized metrics that will allow companies to accurately measure their impact on the environment (in line with Target 15 of the Global Biodiversity Framework).

Throughout the summit, it was repeatedly emphasized that 2026 is a breakthrough year in the history of global nature conservation. In October, the governments of 196 member countries of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity will gather in Yerevan to assess the interim results of the targets to be achieved by 2030.

Armenia's high-level representation at the summit was further strengthened by two key participations:

* Hambardzum Matevosyan, RA Minister of Environment, delivered a special video address, presenting Armenia's commitment and readiness to best host the upcoming COP17.

* Ambassador Mher Margaryan, Special Envoy of the UN CBD COP17 Presidency, was also among the high-level speakers of the summit, addressing Armenia's diplomatic and practical efforts towards global biodiversity conservation in his speech.

FPWC, being one of the leading organizations in ecological innovation and protected area management in Armenia, plans to practically apply the outcomes of the summit and the agreements reached in Armenia, strengthening the state-private sector-local community connection and ensuring our country's dignified and impactful representation at COP17.