On the sidelines of CBD COP17 in Yerevan, Armenia, Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav held a bilateral meeting on Wednesday, October 28, 2026 that wove together two of India's most consequential environmental pursuits — the landmark cheetah reintroduction programme and a hard-fought push for equitable benefit-sharing in global biodiversity governance.

Yadav met with Narend Singh, Deputy Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment of the Republic of South Africa, using the margins of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) as an opportunity to advance both agendas in a single conversation. The minister confirmed the meeting on X, noting that the two sides 'exchanged views on matters related to an equitable, effective and adequately funded multilateral mechanism for benefit-sharing from the use of digital sequence information on genetic resources, including the Cali Fund.'

The Cali Fund and India's DSI battle

At the heart of the biodiversity diplomacy agenda sits the question of digital sequence information (DSI) — the genetic data derived from biological samples that pharmaceutical, agricultural, and biotech industries rely on. Biodiversity-rich developing nations, including India, have long argued that the benefits flowing from commercial use of such data must flow back to the countries and communities that are the original stewards of those resources.

The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, adopted at CBD COP15 in December 2022, established the mandate for a multilateral mechanism to formalise exactly this principle. The Cali Fund, named for the Colombian city where COP16 was held, emerged as the vehicle to operationalise that commitment. India's engagement here is not peripheral — it is a co-architect of the developing-country coalition pressing for a mechanism that is both funded and enforceable, not merely aspirational.

Project Cheetah: South Africa's role in India's wildest conservation bet

Project Cheetah, India's audacious programme to reintroduce the cheetah after its extinction in the country, has South Africa as a central partner. The project was formally launched in September 2022, with the first cohort of cheetahs flown from South Africa to Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh — the first intercontinental translocation of a large carnivore in history.

The minister's acknowledgement that 'India appreciates South Africa's sustained support for Project Cheetah' signals that the bilateral wildlife relationship remains active and institutionally warm. Discussions at Yerevan focused on the 'conservation efforts steering it' — a phrase pointing to the ongoing monitoring, veterinary support, and habitat management protocols that will determine whether the reintroduced population can establish itself as a self-sustaining force on Indian soil.

One meeting, two pillars of India's biodiversity diplomacy

What makes this encounter strategically notable is the deliberate coupling of the two agendas. India is simultaneously a recipient country in species conservation diplomacy — dependent on South African expertise and animals — and a demandeur in access-benefit-sharing negotiations, seeking financial commitments from the industrialised world. Engaging South Africa on both tracks in a single bilateral reinforces a broader Indian strategy: bilateral wildlife cooperation and multilateral equity negotiations are not separate files, but interlocking instruments of the same environmental foreign policy.

The minister closed his post signalling clear intent: India 'looks forward to advancing both agenda items' — a phrase that, in diplomatic language, means the conversation at Yerevan is an opening, not a conclusion.