The UN biodiversity summit known as COP16 officially opened in Colombia last week, and hopes were high that negotiating countries can agree on a path forward to safeguarding the planet.
Considered the world’s most important event to conserve biodiversity, the summit took place in Cali, the third largest city of the South American nation, and hosted some 15,000 attendees, including a dozen heads of state, 103 ministers and over 1,000 international journalists.
Aiming to promote international cooperation, agree on investments to protect ecosystems and strengthen global environmental policies, COP16 takes as its roadmap the Kunming-Montreal Biodiversity Framework (GBF), a landmark plan to halt and reverse the loss of biodiversity for 2030, adopted at COP15 in Canada.
The UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) describes biodiversity as “the diversity within species, between species and of ecosystems, including plants, animals, bacteria, and fungi.” These three work together to create life on Earth, in all its complexity.
The diversity of species keeps the global ecosystem in balance, providing everything in nature that we, as humans, need to survive, including food, clean water, medicine and shelter. Biodiversity is also our strongest natural defense against climate change. Land and ocean ecosystems act as “carbon sinks,” absorbing more than half of all carbon emissions.
Delegates at COP16, formally the 16th Conference of Parties to the UN Biodiversity Convention, will discuss how to restore rapidly degrading lands and seas in a way that protects the planet and respects the rights of indigenous peoples and local communities. UN News
A key goal will be to fully implement the so-called ‘30 by 30’ Kunming-Montreal pledge to protect 30 percent of the planet’s lands and inland waters, as well as of marine and coastal areas, by 2030.
Marking the first global gathering on the vital issue of biodiversity since 2022, when countries agreed on the historic framework, COP16 will run until November 1 in Cali, the capital of Valle del Cauca. This area is surrounded by the magical sounds of the jungle, purifying streams, intensely green mountains and the strength of the Pacific Ocean in the northwest of the country.
Colombia’s Pacific region is marked by landscapes that could be printed on postcards to commemorate their beauty. Colombia is considered one of the most biodiverse countries in the world with 311 types of continental and marine ecosystems per square kilometers.
Home to more than one thousand species of birds, four thousand species of orchids, and with 53 percent of its territory covered by forests, Colombia’s selection as COP16 host highlights the importance of the region in the global biodiversity agenda and the fundamental role it plays in the protection of ecosystems.
During the summit’s opening ceremony, UN Secretary-General António Guterres urged delegations from some 190 countries to “make peace with nature” and shore up plans to stop habitat loss, save endangered species, and preserve our planet’s precious ecosystems.
