Secretary-General António Guterres urged delegations from some 190 countries to “make peace with nature” and shore up a plan to stop habitat loss, save endangered species, and preserve our planet’s precious ecosystems as the latest UN biodiversity summit got under way in Cali, Colombia on Sunday night.

The UN chief’s call came in a video message to the opening ceremony of the gathering, which officially begins on Monday 21 October in one of the most biodiverse countries on earth. Over the next two weeks, government experts, environmental activists and indigenous groups will tackle pressing global challenges in biodiversity protection.  

Formally the 16th meeting of the Conference of Parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, known by the shorthand CBD COP16, the summit marks the first global gathering on this vital issue since 2022, when countries agreed on the historic Kunming-Montreal Global Framework (GBF), the most far-reaching action plan to protect biodiversity.

The Secretary-General said: “The framework is grounded in a clear truth – for humanity to survive, nature must flourish… it promises to reset relations with Earth and its ecosystems.”

‘La COP de la gente’

“But we are not on track. Your task at this COP is to convert words into action. That means countries presenting clear plans that align national actions with all the framework’s targets,” he said, adding that it also means agreeing a strengthened monitoring and transparency framework and it means honouring promises on finance and accelerating support to developing countries.

Mr. Guterres said delegations must leave Cail with significant investments in the GBF, its related funds and commitments to mobilize other sources of public and private finance to deliver on its goals in full.  

“And those profiting from nature must contribute to its protection and restoration,” he continued, and underscored that the world’s developing countries “are being plundered” as the scientific discoveries and economic growth derived from their “extraordinary riches” were benefitting others.

COP16 must engage all of society – as ‘la COP de la gente’ (a COP of the people) – and it must strengthen the role of indigenous peoples and local communities, who are “the world’s great guardians of biodiversity, luminaries of sustainable use.  

Their knowledge and stewardship must be at the heart of biodiversity action at every level.

“We have a plan to rescue humanity from a degraded Earth,” the Secretary-General said, and added that he looked forward to seeing delegates in person at the end of the COP “to hear how you have delivered.”  

‘Recomposing the way we live’

In her remarks, COP President Susana Muhamad said that during COP16, steps must be taken towards implementation of the Kunming Montreal Global Framework.

“It is basically about recomposing the way we live, recomposing the development model, recomposing, rethinking, rediscovering how we live together in diversity, in a system that does not permanently make nature a victim of development, but rather our own reproduction as a society reproduces life,” she said.

Ms. Muhamad, who is Colombia’s Environmental Minister stressed that biodiversity conservation is deeply linked to climate action, and that extractive use of natural resources is responsible for 50 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions today, but at the same time, it is also causing 90 per cent of biodiversity loss.  

“Powerfully restoring ecosystems and nature can contribute almost 40 per cent to the solution of stabilizing the climate and the carbon cycle,” she emphasized.