From 19 to 30 October 2026, Indigenous Peoples and local communities will participate in the 2026 United Nations Biodiversity Conference, to be held in Yerevan, Armenia. The Conference will encompass the seventeenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP17), the twelfth meeting of the Parties to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety (CP-MOP-12), and the sixth meeting of the Parties to the Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit-sharing (NP-MOP-6).
The International Indigenous Forum on Biodiversity (IIFB) will support and coordinate the participation of Indigenous Peoples
throughout the Conference.
COP17 will mark the first global review of collective progress towards the implementation of the Kunming-Montreal Global
Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF).
What was achieved?
- After two weeks of tense negotiations, parties of the UN Biodiversity Conference decided to create a Permanent Subsidiary Body on Article 8j (SB8j) and adopted the New Programme of Work and institutional arrangements on Article 8(j) and other provisions of the Convention related to indigenous peoples and local communities.
- This is a historic win for the IIFB, who have been engaging in the CBD for over two decades. No other UN environmental process has a dedicated, permanent space for Indigenous Peoples and local communities.
- IIFB work resumed in February 25-27, when the UN Biodiversity Conference was reconvened in Rome, Italy. In this resumned session, further achievements were met, related to resource mobilization, financial mechanism, and monitoring and planning.
IIFB at COP17 negotiations
IIFB Side Events
Outcomes of the TRɄA World Summit on Traditional Knowledge related to Biodiversity
Other meetings and events
