VOLODYMYR SONYUK
The 17th global conference of the parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP17) concluded in Yerevan on 31 October 2026. The event closed one day later than scheduled, following a twelve-hour overnight plenary session. Armenia’s Environment Minister Hambardzum Matevosyan, who chaired the conference, struck the gavel, saying the words “And that's it. Perfect” – “And that’s all. Excellent.”
The Armenian environment minister said the results “had exceeded expectations”. According to Carbon Brief, delegates praised the logistics – the free buses, the streets closed to traffic and the schools that had been shut. Political scientist Yves Zinggrebe of the Helmholtz Centre called the presidency “highly conscientious”. There were no complaints about the organisation. But a host country is judged not only by how the negotiations proceeded.
There is also a more important question: what Armenia is doing with its own biodiversity during these days – and with those trying to protect it. Literally nine days before the conference opened, the government commissioned a gold mine, despite the requirements of the Bern Convention. During the conference, the Armenian police clashed with environmentalists eight times, while not a single institution was willing to comment on the case. At the same time, the relevant ministry put up for public discussion a bill that would strip Armenia’s municipalities of the right to block mining projects. The discussion ended only on the day COP17 closed.
“Armenia played the role of the event’s organiser, but was not a genuine participant in the conference.” Anna Shakhnazaryan of the Armenian Environmental Front summed up the situation in these words to the German publication taz. She was twice denied access to the event because she was wearing a T-shirt bearing a slogan against the gold mine under discussion.
Gold mine opened on the very day the conference began
On 10 October, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan commissioned the Amulsar gold mine near the town of Jermuk during a ceremony that had not been announced in advance, calling it a “success story”. “The lack of advance notice allowed the prime minister to say: since there are no protests, the concerns must have disappeared,” environmental lawyer Artur Grigoryan commented on the ceremony.
As early as 2025, the Standing Committee of the Bern Convention of the Council of Europe called for the gold-mining permits to be suspended. In 2026, it demanded a new environmental impact assessment (EIA), as well as the creation of a Jermuk National Park before COP17.
The government responded that the assessment and permits “remain in force”; neither a new assessment nor a park became reality – the Heinrich Böll Foundation recalled this one day before the conference opened in Yerevan. More than forty organisations and activists listed twelve objectives of the Convention itself that the mining project contradicts. Beneath the mine, on the Arpa River, lies the Kechut Reservoir, from where water is transferred through a tunnel to Lake Sevan – anything that enters the river will end up in Armenia’s principal lake.
The conflict of interest here is not a metaphor: since 2024, the state has owned 12.5% of Lydian Armenia. In 2025, the government provided a state guarantee of $150 million for the mining company’s loans. Thus, the environment minister chairing the biodiversity conference simultaneously represented both one of the shareholders and the principal guarantor of the loan to the mining company operating the mine.
A T-shirt as a “security threat”
On the opening day, activists carrying SaveAmulsar posters and wearing SaveAmulsar T-shirts were not allowed to move from the green zone into the blue zone; posters were banned, and around ten police officers insisted that they move away from the main entrance. The protest group was accompanied by officers from Armenia’s National Security Service. “They won’t even let us into the blue zone,” “this is a disgrace,” activist Silva Adamyan said on 21 October. Anna Shakhnazaryan, meanwhile, was detained for fifteen minutes outside the conference entrance because of her T-shirt – before her own presentation on the conference stage.
When pickets outside the entrance were banned, the protest moved indoors. On 24 October, activist Shavarsh Margaryan spent three hours in the blue zone with a heavy stone tied to his leg; the amount that the mining company was demanding from him in a lawsuit had been written on the stone. Four days later, during a lecture in the green zone, two police officers asked Levon Galstyan to hand over the microphone when he began speaking about the relocation of protected plants from the mine’s territory – and backed down only after those present expressed outrage.
Front Line Defenders sent an urgent appeal to the authorities, saying that the organisation “believes that human rights defenders are being persecuted for legitimate and peaceful human rights work”. Michel Forst, the Special Rapporteur on the Aarhus Convention, promised to raise the issue with Nikol Pashinyan’s government if an abuse of authority by security personnel was confirmed. Armenia’s Ministry of Internal Affairs, National Security Service and Ministry of Environment did not respond to reports concerning any of the cases. Meanwhile, according to lawyer Nazeli Vardanyan, concession holder Lydian sued her over a figure published on the gold-mining company’s own website. On 25 October, Shavarsh Matevosyan confirmed that the blue zone was “closed to citizens”.
Bill discussed while guests were still in the country
Five days before COP17 opened, Armenia’s Ministry of Territorial Administration published amendments to the Code on Subsoil Resources and the Law on Environmental Impact Assessment. At present, an objection by the local municipal council blocks the state examination of the gold-mining project – this is the only lever available to the municipality against the mine on its own territory.
Under the bill, “the grounds for the objections” would be considered by an authorised body, which would itself decide whether they were sufficient. One hundred and five organisations, including Transparency International and the Yerevan Press Club, called for the amendments to be withdrawn and for “the bias of their developers in favour of the mining industry” to be investigated. The discussion of the bill ended on 30 October; the result was not published.
After 31 October, the Pashinyan cabinet no longer mentioned the conference. Armenia received a mandate for a two-year presidency and is now stepping aside, overshadowed by the next major event – the upcoming climate conference in Antalya, Turkey. As conference chair, Armenia did not resolve a single dispute between the parties – all of them have been postponed until Kyoto in 2028. And the two decisions taken by Armenia itself – commissioning the Amulsar deposit and the bill on subsoil resources – run counter to the objectives for which the conference was convened in the first place. The country held a conference on protecting nature and did not allow its own environmentalists to attend it. Shakhnazaryan portrayed the case of Armenia’s presidency with absolute precision: an organiser, but not an active participant.