Armenia won with 65 votes out of 123 cast in a secret ballot at the CBD's 16th Conference of Parties (COP16), winding down in the city of Cali, the meeting's president Susana Muhamad announced.
The inharmonious neighbors both put forward offers to host COP17 in two years' time, and representatives presented detailed pitches, complete with videos highlighting their countries' natural beauty, to fellow delegates earlier this week.
It had been decided at COP13 in Cancun, Mexico, that COP17 will be hosted in a country from the central and eastern European region, which includes Azerbaijan ally Russia.
Uzbekistan had also been in the running, but pulled out.
This was the first time the CBD parties had voted on the next host from among two candidates, according to spokesman David Ainsworth.
In the past, parties had reached consensus on a candidate to put forward, but this time, the appointed host region was unable to agree on one.
Former Soviet republics Azerbaijan and Armenia have seen decades of war and tension over Nagorno-Karabakh, a breakaway ethnic Armenian region in Azerbaijan.
After a series of slow-moving negotiations, Azerbaijan rushed in troops last year and swiftly seized back the area, whose entire population of nearly 120,000 people fled to Armenia.
The next, 29th, annual COP on climate change will be held in the Azerbaijani capital Baku in November.
The international community has been ramping up pressure for an agreement between the neighbors before COP29.
Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Azerbaijan in August.
How many threatened species in the COP host countries ?
Paris (AFP) Oct 31, 2024 -
Nearly one in ten species of animals is threatened with extinction in Colombia, host of the UN's COP16 biodiversity summit, according to an AFP analysis based on this week's updated assessments of the world's species.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) compiles the reference inventory of the conservation status of biodiversity on Earth and assesses species based on their threat levels.
A similar proportion is at risk in Azerbaijan, where the COP29 will be held in mid-November, and in France.
- Colombian fauna threatened by agriculture -
As of today, the IUCN has assessed 15,446 species recorded in Colombia, of which more than half are animals.
The IUCN considers a species as threatened with extinction when it fails into one of the vulnerable, endangered or critically endangered categories. More than nine percent of assessed Colombian species are in these categories.
Iconic species like the blue whale or the green turtle are among the 253 endangered species. Another 150 species are assessed as critically endangered.
The vast majority of threatened species face multiple dangers. Agriculture and aquaculture are the most common threat to Colombian species at risk, impacting two-thirds of those. Harvesting of natural resources, which includes activities like hunting or fishing, comes second, with nearly 60 percent of species being impacted.
More than a hundred species suffer the consequence of climate change, echoing the words of UN chief Antonio Guterres, who warned at COP16 on Tuesday that "climate change, biodiversity loss, land degradation and pollution" were "intertwined".
- The impact of natural resource harvesting in Azerbaijan -
Azerbaijan, known for its vast reserves of gas and oil, will be the host of the COP29 climate change summit from November 11 to 22.
Of the 767 species of animals assessed in Azerbaijan by the IUCN, 69 are at risk of extinction and three have been extinct locally.
Among those, about one in five is endangered, and another one in five is critically endangered.
Birds, of which 11 percent are threatened with extinction, are comparatively more affected than six percent of mammals and four percent of insects.
The exploitation of natural resources affects more than two-thirds of threatened species, but invasive species and diseases also appear as a significant threat in Azerbaijan, impacting over 40 percent of species at risk.
A significant share of animal species -- 20 percent -- are also susceptible to climate change.
- Significant impact of climate change in France -
As of today, the IUCN has assessed 8,238 species recorded in mainland France, of which two-thirds are animals.
Among species recorded in France since 1500, eight have gone extinct globally, and another fourteen cannot be found in the country anymore.
More than 10 percent of assessed species are threatened with extinction. In particular, 58 species are listed as critically endangered. Among them are the common hamster, the North Atlantic right whale or the large alpine salamander.
At least 30 percent are also suffering the consequence of climate change and severe weather.
In the country, more than 40 percent of threatened species are affected by the harvesting of natural resources. Actions that convert or degrade habitat pose a threat to more than a third of them.
IUCN data shows all animal groups are impacted. Around 15 percent of assessed mammals, 12 percent of birds and nine percent of insects recorded in France are at risk.
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