The conference of the governments which have signed the U.N. Convention on Biological Diversity are meeting 21 October to 1 November 2024 in Cali, Colombia with the theme of the conference "Peace With Nature." Peace has been a rare element in the life of Colombians. The conference is under tight security as a rebel guerrilla group is active in the area. The country as a whole still has active paramilitaries as well as strong drug gangs.
Antonio Guterres, the U.N. Secretary-General in his opening statement highlighted that destroying Nature increases conflict, hunger, disease and fuels poverty. Susana Muhamad, Colombian Minister of the Environment, who is chairing the conference added that Nature is the fiber of life that makes our own existence possible.
The Convention of Biological Diversity is closely related to the U.N. Decade on Ecosystem Restoration 2021-2030. An aim of the Decade is to restore 30 per cent of degraded lands by 2023. Such protection and creative restoration will be costly. As with many U.N. conferences, there is a hope that the conference will encourage governments to contribute to the U.N.-created Global Biodiversity Framework Fund created in 2022 as well as spending more money on national projects and local environmental efforts.
Thus, in addition to the representatives of governments, there are a good number of members of non-governmental organizations (NGOs), local activists, academics, and representatives of indigenous populations which have had special relations with Nature - in all some 12,000 persons. With the site of the meeting in Latin America, a good deal of the discussions will probably focus on policies in South American countries such as Brazil.
With storms which continue to devastate and wildfires burn, we will have to see how we can build on these deliberations.
René Wadlow, Association of World Citizens
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