A two-week summit aimed at reversing global losses of plants, animals and their habitats opened in Cali, Colombia, where leaders urged a greater role for the “political power” of Indigenous peoples and local communities.
Colombia's President Gustavo Petro set the stakes on Monday as he addressed the start of the world’s biggest nature protection conference his nation is hosting. He emphasized the knowledge and actions of his nation's Indigenous groups and Afro-descendants. His government views them as longstanding nature stewards who could help stem the loss of biodiversity.
“Perhaps the greatest battle is about to begin. It is no longer a battle for spoils, for slaves, for the conquest of land and people. It is the great battle for life,” Petro, who is Colombia's first leftist president, told the two-week United Nations Biodiversity Conference, or COP16.
The U.N. summit is a follow-up to the landmark gathering at Montréal, presided over by China, in 2022, when delegates clinched a 196-nation deal to halt biodiversity loss.
The historic global deal aimed to conserve at least 30% of the planet's land, freshwater and ocean resources for use by wildlife by 2030, and to mobilize at least US$200 billion a year by 2030 to meet target-specific projects.
Wealthy countries also agreed to give developing countries US$20 billion a year by 2025, and to increase that to US$30 billion a year by 2030.
Colombia’s environment minister, Susana Muhamad, who serves as COP16 president, called for solutions that reflect the strengths, knowledge and "political power" of Indigenous peoples and local communities.
"We have realized that peace cannot be consolidated in the territory without the inclusion of diversity, of specific knowledge, without also making ‘peace with nature,' " she said.
The summit is expected to take up a plan on sharing benefits of digital data on genetic material – and their commercial uses in drug-making and other industries – that comes from animals, bacteria, plants and viruses.
Delegates also plan to highlight the nexus between preserving biodiversity, fighting climate change, and boosting public health goals such as increasing preparations for and the ability to prevent future pandemics.
An estimated 1 million species are threatened with extinction as 75% of land-based environments and 66% of marine environments were altered by human actions, the 132-nation IPBES organization reported in 2019.
Human actions are causing Earth's natural life support systems to reach a breaking point, it found, based on the work of 145 wildlife experts from 50 countries and inputs from another 310 contributing authors.
Earlier this month, WWF's Living Planet Report showed an average 73% decline in wildlife populations since 1970 and said nations must tackle the dual climate and nature crises over the next five years.
Another major topic at COP16 is financing. Development finance for biodiversity more than doubled from 2015 to 2022, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development reported, but wealthy countries are 23% short of the US$20 billion a year target set at the 2022 summit.
“In many ways, this is a make-or-break moment for nature and by extension many communities around the world,” Susan Gardner, director of the Ecosystems Division at the U.N. Environment Program, said of COP16, which runs through the end of the month.
“Environmental degradation is fueling poverty, driving displacement and sparking conflict," she said. "Over the last several years, we’ve seen countries make bold commitments to address the nature crisis. During the next two weeks, we need to see those promises turned into action.”
