Last weekend, the 17th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP17) opened in Yerevan with a lavish ceremony. It is the first time the summit has been hosted by a former Soviet republic, an occasion the Armenian government has celebrated as an opportunity to establish the country as a leader in environmental protection. But Armenia’s own ecological record raises serious questions about its suitability for this role.
When Yerevan was awarded the right to host COP17 in 2024, the Armenian authorities celebrated the decision as recognition of the country’s environmental ambitions. Yet Armenia has struggled for decades to develop effective conservation policies, and its record remains poor in several important areas. In Yale University’s 2026 Environmental Performance Index, Armenia ranks 75th out of 177 countries, compared with first place for Estonia, another former Soviet republic.
Its performance is particularly poor on waste management, where it ranks 164th, and wastewater treatment, where it ranks 165th. These figures point to serious shortcomings in basic environmental protection. The contrast raises an obvious question: why was a country facing such serious environmental challenges chosen to host one of the world’s most important biodiversity conferences?
The selection might have offered an opportunity to encourage change, but there is little indication that the Armenian authorities have used the occasion to address the country’s longstanding problems. A major obstacle is the structure of Armenia’s economy, in which mining plays an important role, alongside ageing industrial facilities and inadequate environmental regulation. The country’s largest mining operations, including the Zangezur, Agarak and Teghut copper-molybdenum mines, extract ore using open-pit methods that generate large quantities of waste and pose serious pollution risks.
The World Bank has identified mining as a significant source of environmental pollution in Armenia. Open-pit gold mining has also been licensed at Meghrasar, on land that originally overlapped with Arevik National Park, before the government reduced the park’s boundaries in 2015. The Artsvanik tailings reservoir, which holds millions of tonnes of mining waste, has also been linked to heavy-metal contamination in nearby waterways.
Armenia’s environmental problems extend beyond mining. Forests cover only 11.1 percent of the country, while in Yerevan, levels of harmful fine particle air pollution are about five times the World Health Organization’s recommended limit. Armenia’s dependence on Russian-linked businesses in some of its most important industrial sectors further complicates efforts to strengthen environmental regulation.
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