The international community is preparing for the 2025 UN Climate Change Conference (COP 30), set to take place in Brazil this November, and Armenia is preparing to host the 17th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP 17) in the fall of 2026. Ahead of these events, a Sustainable Development Conference was organized in Armenia on May 15, 2025, which served as a bridge between COP 30 in Brazil and COP 17 in Armenia. The discussion focused on how Armenia can align with global sustainable development agendas and strengthen its position as an environmental leader.

“We are heading to COP 30 and preparing to host COP 17, yet we have no good precedent to showcase from a business perspective when it comes to biodiversity management. We have lost that chance,” said Armen Stepanyan, Director for Sustainable Development at the Zangezur Copper Molybdenum Combine (ZCMC), speaking at the conference.

According to him, Armenia has missed that opportunity, and a good mining program would have given it that chance:

“In this regard, I must mention the case of Amulsar. There was a comprehensive biodiversity offset program - Jermuk National Park - which was agreed upon with the government. However, it is unclear what stage that program is at now, because it was supposed to be successfully completed in 2021. It was a significant loss for Armenia’s mining industry.”

“People often have the stereotype that mining inevitably leads to biodiversity loss. But preserving biodiversity is very important for the mining industry itself, as these losses pose immediate and significant risks to our sector as well. Maybe in many cases it is so, but the world has already proven that it is a completely manageable process,” said Armen Stepanyan.

The Director for Sustainable Development at ZCMC noted that a large-scale mining project involves millions of dollars, resources, specialists for studying baseline data “to understand its impact on every beetle, grass, and flower to assess the value of biodiversity.”

“We are investing significant resources to understand the impact of our operations on the environment. When dealing with critical habitats, we need to go beyond simply neutralizing biodiversity loss – we must also establish a positive outcome. In the case of more modified habitats, we need to at least zero the impact. Amulsar was a very good example of this, and ZCMC has adopted the same path. All of our development programs are guided by the same rigor, the same science-based approach to both biodiversity and all areas of sustainable development.

If we don’t face our real problems today and if we don’t falsely exaggerate the impact we have, we won’t actually achieve any of our goals. Yes, there are issues – no one is running away from them. Representatives of the sector talk about the problems. But if we continue to demonize these problems, we will not move forward,” said Armen Stepanyan.

Arpi Jilavyan
Photos by Emin Aristakesyan