Mr. Suchart Chomklin, Minister of Natural Resources and Environment, assigned Ms. Raweewan Bhuridej, Ph. D., Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, to share Thailand's perspectives and present examples of the country's best practices at the ministerial-level forum, The Yerevan Call on Incentives Positive to Biodiversity, during CBD COP17. Ministers and permanent secretaries from several countries, including Armenia, France, Cuba, Guinea, Colombia, Mexico, Botswana, Japan, Finland, and Thailand, participated in the exchange of experiences.

On the afternoon of October 26, 2026, at the Meridian Exhibition Center in Yerevan, Armenia, Ms. Raweewan, accompanied by Mr. Bannaruk Sermthong, Secretary-General of the Office of Natural Resources and Environmental Policy and Planning (ONEP), Mr. Tanit Changthavorn, Ph. D., Director of the Biodiversity-Based Economy Development Office, and senior ministry executives, attended the ministerial-level meeting, The Yerevan Call on Incentives Positive to Biodiversity. The meeting sought to advance Target 18 of the Kunming–Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KM-GBF), which calls for the elimination of subsidies and incentives harmful to nature alongside the expansion of positive incentives to support sustainable biodiversity conservation. Senior representatives of member countries, international organizations, the Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity, and Armenia's Minister of Environment, who chairs CBD COP17, also shared their perspectives.

Ms. Raweewan highlighted Thailand's efforts to eliminate subsidies and incentives that harm biodiversity, citing a seawall construction project in Phetchaburi Province. Subsequent studies found that the seawall had adversely affected the ecosystem, contributing to increased coastal erosion and a decline in sandy beaches and biodiversity. In response, the government shifted towards nature-based solutions, replacing the seawall with bamboo barriers and saving more than US$17 million in public expenditure. She also discussed government efforts to close loopholes in the enforcement of land and building taxes. Some landowners had planted monoculture crops, such as bananas or lemons, on valuable vacant urban land, mangrove forests, and biodiversity-rich wetlands to qualify for lower agricultural land tax rates. Parliament subsequently approved land and building tax exemptions for green areas consisting of mangrove forests and areas already registered under T-VER.

The meeting also marked the launch of three major mechanisms under an initiative led by the CBD COP17 Presidency in collaboration with the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity, the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and UNDP-BIOFIN. These included the "Yerevan Call on Incentives Positive to Biodiversity," a high-level political declaration aimed at reforming incentives harmful to biodiversity and expanding positive incentives; "Friends of Target 18," a cooperation network led by CBD Parties to facilitate the exchange of knowledge and experience and support implementation of Target 18; and the "Yerevan Biodiversity Finance Challenge," a mechanism designed to support national implementation by developing incentive measures, strengthening biodiversity finance planning, and mobilizing resources for conservation.