At Cop17, the pressure is on to rescue a deal that could end the destruction of nature

​As world leaders struggle to meet deadlines to halt nature loss set four years ago, a rare leopard in host country Armenia offers a symbol of what is at stake

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The Armenian capital Yerevan is chock-a-block right now with officials, scientists and environmentalists from all over the world gathering for Cop17. Everyone is here to try to rescue a historic deal to end the destruction of nature.

The pressure is on. Targets set for 2030 are woefully off track, and the nearly 200 countries present need to agree on a plan to speed things up. All this is happening at a time when national budgets are tight and leaders are distracted by conflict, protests and the global energy crisis.

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There have been snippets of positive news. Just a week before the conference began, a Persian leopard, one of Armenia’s rarest and most endangered animals, was spotted in the southern-central region of the country.

“It was late, we came home and then one of my caretakers [rangers] called me and said, ‘I have amazing news,’” Syuzi Karapetyan, a teacher who also leads the Gndasar Social-Environmental NGO, explained when I visited her village on Saturday. She had goosebumps when she heard the news, she said.

Persian leopards, also known as Caucasian leopards, were once widespread across western and central Asia, but their range has shrunk dramatically. There are thought to be no more than 10 leopards in Armenia, as poaching and habitat destruction have devastated its population.

The discovery of a new individual, never spotted before in the country, has delighted Karapetyan and local people, who in partnership with WWF have rebuilt the population of bezoar goats, one of the leopard’s key prey species, and found ways to protect its habitats.

The question of how to save our most endangered species is a critical issue being discussed at Cop17. Scientists have warned of the rapid annihilation of wildlife, far above natural background levels, with some saying we are in the midst of a mass extinction event, driven by human overpopulation and overconsumption.

A commitment to protect endangered species was one of 23 targets that governments set four years ago, and which they are not on track to meet.

Lots of governments still haven’t mobilised resources, partly because they don’t know where to focus, says Dr Kira Mileham, who co-chairs the Reverse the Red Action Partnership, which supports governments to tackle species loss.

There might be hundreds of species at risk within a country’s borders; which should they prioritise?

This week, Armenia and Colombia announced an initiative, the Coalition of Action to Recover Endangered Species (Cares), a government coalition that aims to help countries assess where to focus their efforts. Some species might not need much dedicated action, as long as parallel efforts – for example to protect their habitat – are under way. Others might need more focused, species-specific interventions such as protection from disease or, if their numbers are very low, help to enable them to breed.

The Cares alliance will help governments to assess which of the species in need of specific support are already receiving attention from NGOs or research institutions, and which are falling through the cracks, and connect them with experts, says Mileham. Reverse the Red will serve as the secretariat of Cares.

It’s then up to governments to develop a plan, and find resources to support it. So far, 17 countries, including the UK, have joined the Cares alliance to share best practice.

Separately, nine private funders and organisations, including Leonardo DiCaprio’s Re:wild, have said they will commit more than $500m over the next five years to recover the world’s most threatened species.

The money has been welcomed, but it also matters how it is spent. There is still a huge bias in how conservation funding is allocated, with larger, charismatic animals such as leopards, tigers and elephants sweeping up the majority of resources. “Decisions need to be taken based on the scientific information that is available, and not just because some are cute, which unfortunately is what happens,” says Benoit Guénard, associate professor at the University of Hong Kong, who has researched the distribution of conservation funds.

Many conservationists hope money will be better targeted, with resources spread more evenly – and that fungi, algae and amphibians might see some of the success enjoyed by the Persian leopard.

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