Armenia joins the Freshwater Challenge boosting efforts to accelerate action on inland waters
- 55 country members with Armenia (COP17 Presidency) and the European Union
- Global Report on KMGBF highlighted inland waters as lagging behind in action and ambition
- 85% decline in freshwater species population on average since 1970 (Living Planet Report 2026)
In a major boost to global efforts to reverse the ongoing loss of freshwater species and ecosystems, Armenia, the Convention on Biological Diversity COP17 Presidency, today joined the Freshwater Challenge – increasing membership of the world’s largest freshwater restoration and protection initiative to 55 countries and the EU.
CBD COP17 comes at a pivotal moment for freshwater biodiversity. The new WWF and ZSL Living Planet Report found that freshwater species populations across the globe had crashed by 85% on average since 1970 – far worse than terrestrial or marine species. Meanwhile, the Global Report into progress towards the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework highlighted that inland waters were lagging behind in both action and ambition.
Ara Mkrtchyan, Deputy Minister of Environment, Armenia said: “Armenia has many important freshwater ecosystems, with Lake Sevan at their heart. These waters are essential for our economy, communities and cities, and our rich biodiversity. We understand that we must act now and invest more in protecting and restoring our rivers, lakes, other water resources, and wetlands. These ecosystems play an important role in stopping nature loss, ensuring water security, and fighting climate change. We believe that the Freshwater Challenge will help us protect our valuable freshwater resources for people, nature, and the climate.”
The country-led Freshwater Challenge aims to ensure that 300,000km of degraded rivers and 350 million hectares of degraded wetlands are under restoration by 2030 (GBF Target 2), while protecting intact freshwater ecosystems (GBF Target 3). Its purpose is to accelerate delivery of national plans and strategies to restore and conserve freshwater ecosystems and so help countries achieve their commitments on nature, climate, flood and drought resilience, land degradation, and sustainable development.
While the Global Report found insufficient action on inland waters overall, WWF analysis of the 7th National Reports to the CBD show that Freshwater Challenge members certainly have the ambition to act, but are not yet reflecting freshwater in the indicators they report against.
The research, which was conducted before Armenia joined, found that 50 of the 54 Challenge members that are Parties to the CBD had submitted a 7th National Report – with 42 specifically naming inland waters in a national restoration or protection target under GBF Targets 2 or 3. Yet only 11 included a separate figure for inland waters in their headline indicators – with only Brazil and Uganda doing it for both.
The gap was even wider for Targets 18 (subsidies) and 19 (finance) – 9 countries flag a water-related harmful subsidy in their reports, but none puts a value on it, and only 2 of the 34 Challenge members that included a freshwater finance programme put an actual figure on it.
“Momentum is definitely building behind the Freshwater Challenge: the next step is for members to turn commitments into action and for new members to sign up. Our research shows that there are still gaps to fill but it also highlights good practices from Brazil to Uganda, Chile to South Africa that Challenge members can learn from,” said Christine Colvin, Global Freshwater Policy Lead, WWF – one of the core partners of the Freshwater Challenge.
For more information, contact:
Richard Lee, Head of Communications, Wetlands International +31654287956 / [email protected]
Freshwater Challenge
The Freshwater Challenge is a country-led initiative launched at the UN Water Conference in 2023 by Colombia, DR Congo, Ecuador, Gabon, Mexico and Zambia. It aims to restore 300,000 km of degraded rivers and 350 million hectares of degraded wetlands by 2030, and to secure the protection of freshwater ecosystems important for biodiversity and ecosystem services. These targets directly reflect Targets 2 and 3 of the Kunming Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. The Challenge is part of the UN Water Action Agenda, an official Water Outcome of COP28, part of the COP29 Declaration on Water for Climate Action and a flagship initiative of the Riyadh Action Agenda, under the auspices of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration. Its eight Core Partners are Conservation International, IUCN, the Secretariat of the Convention on Wetlands, The Nature Conservancy, UNCCD, UNEP, Wetlands International and WWF. More at freshwaterchallenge.org.
About the Living Planet Report 2026. Published by WWF with the Zoological Society of London, the Living Planet Index tracks 35,803 population trends of 5,790 vertebrate species between 1970 and 2022. Read the report at https://livingplanet.panda.org/