TEDxYerevanSalon returns on October 23, 2026, with “The Web That Holds Us,” an event inspired by COP17, the UN Biodiversity Conference taking place in Yerevan.
We often speak about biodiversity as something around us: forests, oceans, wildlife, ecosystems, and species that need protection. But “The Web That Holds Us” begins from a different perspective: biodiversity isn’t separate from us.
It’s beneath our food, inside our economies, connected to our health, embedded in our cultures and communities, and fundamental to the water we drink, the cities we build, and the futures we imagine. When one part of this web weakens, the consequences travel through the whole system.
This event of TEDxYerevanSalon creates a human-centered space where global conversations become stories, scientific knowledge becomes personally meaningful, and biodiversity is explored through the relationships that connect nature, people, knowledge, rights, technology, economies, and future generations.
Through ideas and perspectives from different fields, our speakers will explore these connections and invite us to look differently at the systems that sustain our lives and the role each of us has within them.
At its heart, “The Web That Holds Us” carries one simple idea: Protecting biodiversity means safeguarding the very systems that make life possible.
*This is an invite-only TEDxYerevanSalon event taking place inside the COP17 Blue Zone.
Read more about our speakers below.
Meet Our Speakers
Dr. Claudia Ituarte-Lima
Principal Investigator of Defendbio at RWI-Lund University and Director, Global Network for Human Rights and the Environment
Dr. Claudia Ituarte-Lima is an international public lawyer and scholar with 20+ years in human rights, biodiversity, and climate law and policy. She is Senior Researcher at the Raoul Wallenberg Institute, Principal Investigator of DefendBio in Sweden, and Director of the Global Network for Human Rights and the Environment.
She combines legal analysis, sustainability science, and participatory research to advance environmental justice. She integrated human rights into UN Convention on Biological Diversity decisions, including biodiversity financing safeguards adopted by its 196 Parties, and served as an IPBES expert.
Author of 30+ peer-reviewed publications and 50+ policy and technical reports and outreach articles. She worked with judges, prosecutors, human rights institutions, UNEP, and UNDP across Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean, and on their interactions with Europe. She holds an MPhil from the University of Cambridge and a PhD from University College London.
Valerie Hickey
Director for Environment, World Bank Group
Valerie Hickey is Director for Environment at the World Bank Group, where she leads global work on nature, natural resource management, the ocean, pollution, and the circular economy. Her work focuses on using data, knowledge, partnerships, and investment to make healthy natural systems a driver of economic growth, and resilient communities.
Previously, Valerie served as Global Director for Climate Change and Global Director for Environment at the World Bank, following a decade managing climate and environment portfolios across Latin America, Europe, and Central Asia. Since joining the World Bank in 2003, she has worked across regions, including leading its environment portfolio in Haiti following the 2010 earthquake, and has led work on biodiversity, the blue economy, and wildlife crime.
Before joining the World Bank, she worked with WWF, the Wildlife Conservation Society, and the U.S. National Park Service. She holds a Ph.D. in Environmental Science and Policy from Duke University.
Stuart Brocklehurst
Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Director, Green Futures
Stuart Brocklehurst is Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Business Engagement and Innovation at the University of Exeter, and Director of Green Futures, which co-ordinates the University’s external facing work on climate, nature and biodiversity.
Stuart started his career in banking, holding a number of roles with Barclays before serving as Senior Vice President for Digital Commerce at Visa International CEMEA. Following a period as a Partner at consultancy Carbon, Stuart joined Amadeus in support of its IPO and served as Group Communications Director after the flotation. He went on to run his own business building AI systems, Applegate, up to its sale in 2022.
Stuart is a Fellow of the Royal Meteorological Society, the Royal Society of Arts and the British Computer Society, a Companion of the Chartered Management Institute, a Chartered IT Professional, a Chartered Manager, a Freeman of the City of London, and a Deputy Lieutenant of Devon.
Lea Ranalder
Programme Management Officer, Multilevel Climate Action, UN-Habitat
Lea Ranalder, Programme Management Officer for Multilevel Climate Action at UN-Habitat, has over eight years of experience in sustainable urbanization and climate policy. Her work draws on country-level evidence to connect global climate processes and local implementation, including facilitating national-local government dialogues.
She leads UN-Habitat’s work on NDCs and NBSAPs, collaborating with country offices to accelerate local climate action through stronger multilevel governance. Under her leadership, UN-Habitat’s analysis of NDCs found that 80% have well-developed urban content; her team is examining urban nature-based solutions content in these plans.
Lea is leading the extension of this work to biodiversity, including an analysis of how NDC and NBSAP priorities align. She also contributes to IPCC processes and holds an M.Sc. in Environmental Studies and Sustainability Science from Lund University.
Mushegh Hovsepyan
Member-elect, UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (2027–2030)
Mushegh Hovsepyan is an elected member of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) for the 2027–2030 term and a disability rights expert from Armenia. He’s President of Disability Rights Agenda NGO and has more than a decade of experience in disability rights, human rights, and public policy.
His work focuses on advancing the implementation of the CRPD through advocacy, legal and policy reform, strategic litigation, research, and monitoring. Mushegh has worked across civil society, government, and international organizations, contributing to reforms in areas including accessibility, independent living, inclusive education, social protection, health, and political participation.
He’s also an author and researcher on disability rights and inclusion, with publications addressing disability law and policy, deinstitutionalization, accessibility, and the protection of persons with disabilities in disasters.
Meet Our Host
Arevik Anapiosyan
Partnerships and Development Finance Advisor at the United Nations in Armenia
Arevik Anapiosyan is the Partnerships and Development Finance Advisor at the UN in Armenia, working at the intersection of strategic partnerships, innovative financing, and complex socio-economic development initiatives. Her work spans strategy, organizational transformation, and scaling initiatives across public, private, and non-profit sectors.
Arevik served as Deputy Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sport of Armenia and spent four years on the Governing Board of the UNESCO Institute for Statistics.
She holds a Doctor of Education in Global Education Leadership from the University of Southern California, an Executive MBA from Harvard Business School focused on General Management, an MA in Political Science from the American University of Armenia, and an MA in International Affairs from Yerevan State University.
Arevik has co-founded several non-profit organizations and for-profit ventures and serves on boards and advisory boards of non-profit and business organizations.
