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Agence France-Presse

UN chief Antonio Guterres on Sunday urged “significant investment” in a fund created to safeguard Earth’s biodiversity as he addressed delegates to the world’s biggest nature protection conference in Cali, Colombia.
The meeting, which officially opens Monday, had a ceremonial start with Cali on high alert after threats from a guerilla group.
Guterres made a video address to guests gathered for the event taking place under the protection of thousands of Colombian police and soldiers, aided by UN and US security personnel.
“We must leave Cali with significant investment in the Global Biodiversity Framework Fund (GBFF), and commitments to mobilise other sources of public and private finance,” the secretary general said.

The GBFF was created last year to help countries achieve the goals of the so-called Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) adopted in Canada in 2022 with 23 targets to “halt and reverse” the loss of nature by 2030.
So far, countries have made about US$250 million in commitments to the fund, according to agencies monitoring progress.
The fund is part of a broader agreement made in Montreal two years ago for countries to mobilise at least US$200 billion per year by 2030 for biodiversity, including US$20 billion per year by 2025 from rich nations to help the developing world.
Guterres highlighted that destroying nature increases conflict, hunger and disease, fuels poverty and slashes GDP.
“A collapse in nature’s services – such as pollination, and clean water – would see the global economy lose trillions of dollars a year, with the poorest hardest hit,” he said.
Avoiding such a future would entail countries “honouring promises on finance and accelerating support to developing countries,” said Guterres.

“Those profiting from nature must contribute to its protection and restoration,” he added.
About 12,000 delegates from nearly 200 countries, including 140 government ministers and a dozen heads of state were due to attend the 16th Conference of the Parties (Cop16) to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), running until November 1.
Themed “Peace with Nature,” it has the urgent task of coming up with monitoring and funding mechanisms to ensure the 23 UN targets can be met.
But Colombia’s EMC rebel group, a splinter of the Farc guerilla army that disbanded in 2017, has cast a shadow over the event by urging foreign delegations to stay away and warning the conference “will fail”.
The threat came after EMC fighters were targeted in a military raid in the southwest Cauca department, where the group is accused of engaging in drug trafficking and illegal mining.
Cali is the nearest big city to territory controlled by the EMC, which has been engaged in fraught peace negotiations with the government.

Colombian President Gustavo Petro also attended Sunday’s ceremonial event, two days after saying he was “nervous” about security.
Cali’s mayor Alejandro Eder insisted, however, that “we have been working since February to safeguard the city of Cali … We have more than 10,000 police officers, we also have detachments of the Colombian Armed Forces guarding the entire perimeter of the city. We have air protection, protection against drones.”
The delegates have their work cut out for them, with just five years left to achieve the target of placing 30 per cent of land and sea areas under protection by 2030.
World-renowned British primate expert Jane Goodall warned ahead of the summit there was little time to reverse the downward slide.
“The time for words and false promises is past if we want to save the planet,” Goodall told AFP this week.
According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), which keeps a red list of threatened animals and plants, more than a quarter of assessed species – about a million altogether – are threatened with extinction.
Host Colombia is one of the most biodiverse countries in the world, and Petro has made environmental protection a priority.
But the country has struggled to extricate itself from six decades of armed conflict between leftist guerillas such as the EMC, right-wing paramilitaries, drug gangs, and the state.


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Americas and the Caribbean

Greenpeace activists hang a banner that reads ‘COP 16 Action for Nature’, in Cali, Colombia. Photo: AFP

Attendees watch a video address from UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres. Photo: EPA-EFE

Colombian military vehicles patrolling in host city Cali. Photo: Colombian Army via AFP

The Cop16 venue in Cali, Colombia. Photo: AP

‘Canary in coal mine of climate change’ as global river flows hit all-time lows’, UN says

Barges float in the Mississippi River as a portion of the riverbed is exposed. Photo: AFP

“Water is the canary in the coal mine of climate change,” Celeste Saulo, Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organization said on Monday. Photo: EPA-EFE

Swiss voters reject plan to better protect country’s biodiversity

A sign asking Swiss voters to say no to Sunday’s Biodiversity Initiative “For the future of our nature and our landscape” sits in Trimmis, near Chur, Switzerland. The banner reads: “30% area gone? Bye Swiss food production!.” Photo: Reuters

A poster for the Yes campaign in a garden ahead of a biodiversity referendum. Photo: Keystone via AP

Overtourism threatened a sacred Colombian lake. How indigenous guards saved it from damage

The Green Lake (Laguna Verde in Spanish), in Tuquerres, department of Narino, Colombia on August 29, 2024. Photo: AFP

Indigenous guard Carol Arevalo is part of a local group protecting the Green Lake, in Narino, Colombia, from overtourism. Members of the indigenous guard will appear at the COP16 UN biodiversity conference in Colombia to discuss their work. Photo: AFP

Shaman Florentino Chazoy travels to the Green Lake, which is now watched over by the local indigenous community. Photo: AFP

Indigenous guards and the shaman from the Pasto ethnic group perform a ritual at the Green Lake in Tuquerres, Colombia. Photo: AFP

Indigenous guard Jorge Arevalo shows a stone of sulphur near the Green Lake. Photo: AFP

Colombian Foreign Minister Luis Gilberto Murillo (left) poses for a photo with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Beijing on October 10. Photo: Xinhua

Colombian Foreign Minister Luis Gilberto Murillo speaks during his four-day visit last week to China. Photo: EPA-EFE

A view of the Agricultural Palace in Kazan, Russia, site of this year’s annual Brics summit, on Thursday. Photo: Reuters

Colombian President Petro slammed for branding women journalists ‘dolls of the mafia’

Colombian President Gustavo Petro. Photo: Reuters

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World

Americas

Environmental delegates are gathering in Colombia for the two-week United Nations Biodiversity Conference, or Cop16


Environmental delegates are gathering in Colombia for the two-week United Nations Biodiversity Conference, or Cop16.
