African Development Bank puts nature finance at the heart of Africa’s COP17 priorities

Finding the money to deliver on global biodiversity commitments will be a central issue at COP17, with resource mobilisation and the Convention’s financial mechanism among the main agenda items.

The African Development Bank Group is taking Africa's biodiversity financing needs to Yerevan, Armenia, where governments and development partners are gathering for talks on turning commitments to protect nature into funded projects and measurable progress.

The 17th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity, running from 19 to 30 October 2026, will hold the first global review of progress under the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. Adopted in December 2022, the framework sets global goals and targets to halt and reverse biodiversity loss, putting pressure on countries to demonstrate what their commitments have delivered.

Making the case for Africa's natural wealth

Forests, wetlands, savannas, freshwater systems and marine ecosystems support food production, water security and millions of livelihoods, helping communities withstand climate pressures and contributing to economic growth. The Bank Group sees these ecosystems as part of Africa's natural wealth and a foundation for development. Damage to them can weaken the resources that households, businesses and national economies depend on.

Its delegation, led by Anthony Nyong, Director for Climate and Green Growth, will participate in Finance Day discussions, ministerial sessions and meetings with African governments, the African Group of Negotiators, multilateral development banks and development partners.

The Bank will call for stronger financial and technical support to help African countries implement their National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans, protecting nature and the economic and climate benefits it provides.

Turning biodiversity commitments into investment

Finding the money to deliver on global biodiversity commitments will be a central issue at COP17, with resource mobilisation and the Convention's financial mechanism among the main agenda items.

The review in Yerevan allows governments to assess how far national action has progressed since adopting the global framework. For countries facing competing development demands, the availability of finance and technical expertise will help determine how much they can deliver.

The Bank Group will highlight how development finance institutions can attract investment into activities that protect and restore ecosystems. Its work across Africa includes ecosystem restoration, landscape resilience, forest conservation, sustainable natural resource management and natural capital valuation, which helps make nature's economic contribution more visible in planning and investment decisions.

That portfolio includes support for the Great Green Wall Initiative and biodiversity-related programmes in the Congo Basin, Lake Chad Basin, Kenya, Sierra Leone and Morocco. These experiences will inform its contribution to discussions on financing nature-positive development.

A shared platform for finance and partnerships

The Bank Group will also co-host the Multilateral Development Banks Pavilion, providing a space for discussions on how financial institutions can work together to support biodiversity. Topics will include capital markets for protected areas, biodiversity finance and blended finance for Africa's nature-positive bioeconomy. The discussions will examine ways to combine financing sources and support economic activities that depend on healthy ecosystems, creating opportunities for closer cooperation among development finance institutions.

The Yerevan engagement builds on the Bank Group's participation at CBD COP16 in Cali, Colombia, carrying its focus on African priorities into the next round of global negotiations. With the first review of the Kunming-Montreal framework approaching, the Bank's message centres on implementation: African countries need financing, technical support and dependable partnerships to turn biodiversity plans into results that protect ecosystems and sustain the communities relying on them.