Liberia Tells COP17 That Biodiversity Pledges Mean Little Without Money, Tools and Local Buy-In

Dr. Yarkpawolo said Liberia stands with the African Group on four priorities. First, he wants global targets paired with real implementation support. He said reviews of progress should look not only at conservation results but also at whether developing nations were given the means to deliver

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By Selma Lomax, [email protected]

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YEREVAN, Armenia – Liberia has told the global biodiversity summit in Armenia that wealthy nations must back their conservation promises with funding, technology and training, or the effort to halt nature’s decline will stall in the places that need help most.
The message came on Wednesday from Dr. Emmanuel King Urey Yarkpawolo, head of Liberia’s Environmental Protection Agency, who addressed the high-level segment of the 17th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity. He spoke on behalf of President Joseph Nyuma Boakai, Sr.

Wildlife deaths as a warning

Dr. Yarkpawolo anchored his appeal in two recent cases at home. In Caldwell, a crocodile was killed by residents who feared for their safety. In Monrovia, a dolphin that had become stranded was reportedly killed on October 25, before fisheries officials could reach it.
He said the cases point to a shared failure: ordinary people have little guidance on handling dangerous or distressed animals, and the state lacks the means to respond quickly. The crocodile killing, he noted, reflected a real safety worry, while the dolphin’s death showed how thin the country’s emergency capacity is.
Protecting wildlife, he argued, cannot come at the expense of families’ security. Communities need to be equipped with knowledge and official backing so they never feel forced to choose between the two.

Four asks, aligned with the African Group

Dr. Yarkpawolo said Liberia stands with the African Group on four priorities. First, he wants global targets paired with real implementation support. He said reviews of progress should look not only at conservation results but also at whether developing nations were given the means to deliver.

Second, he called for biodiversity finance that is sufficient, predictable, timely and easy to reach. Liberia backs Africa’s push for a permanent financial mechanism answerable to the Conference of the Parties, with simpler application procedures and direct access for developing countries. Many African governments have complained that cumbersome funding rules slow projects and hamper responses to emerging threats.

Third, he pressed for stronger capacity and technology transfer. In Liberia, that would mean training wildlife emergency teams, expanding research and monitoring, equipping laboratories, and running public education campaigns in languages people actually speak.
Fourth, he urged fair sharing of the benefits drawn from biological resources, including digital sequence information, the genetic data increasingly used in research and commercial products. Liberia supports meaningful contributions from companies that use such data to the Cali Fund, a mechanism designed to channel benefits back to providers. Developing countries, Indigenous peoples and local communities, he said, should see real returns.

Dr. Yarkpawolo told delegates Liberia has already revised its national biodiversity targets and updated its National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan to match the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, the 2022 accord aimed at halting and reversing biodiversity loss. He described the changes as a base for better coordination among government bodies, conservation groups, communities and foreign partners.

Yet he cautioned that rewriting policy will achieve little without money and sustained follow-through.
Liberia holds large stretches of what remains of the Upper Guinean forest, along with wetlands, rivers, coastal zones and marine habitats that support livelihoods and provide vital services. Those assets are under pressure from habitat loss, overexploitation and uneven enforcement.

Conservation beyond the environment ministry

The EPA chief also urged governments to weave biodiversity into agriculture, fisheries, public health and national development plans, rather than leaving the job to environmental agencies alone. Conservation, he said, is tied to public safety, education and economic opportunity.
He asked COP17 to deliver outcomes that strengthen awareness programs, emergency response systems and income opportunities that give communities a reason to take part in protecting nature.

In closing, he called for information to reach people before fear drives them to destroy wildlife, for help to arrive before threatened animals are lost, and for conservation to offer tangible value to ordinary citizens. He ended with a short line of solidarity: Liberia stands with Africa for action, accessible financing and fairly shared benefits.

His speech adds to a wider African call at the Yerevan talks for a global framework that acknowledges developing countries’ financial limits and ensures that communities living closest to natural resources share in conservation gains. Negotiations and high-level meetings are continuing.