Scaling New Heights: Unveiling the Astonishing 163,000 Species on the Scaffold of Life

The urgency of biodiversity conservation cannot be underestimated. Habitat loss, overfishing, pollution and climate change are driving species to extinction at an unprecedented rate.

Damage to nature has a cascading effect of unimaginable proportions. Warnings from scientists suggest that ecosystems are approaching a tipping point. There are currently more than 163,000 species on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List, of which more than 45,300 are threatened with extinction, classified as follows: 41% amphibians, 37% sharks and rays, 36% reef building corals, 21% reptiles, 34% conifers, 26% mammals, 12% birds, 28% crustaceans and 71% cycads. Not counting insects and other organisms.

And four thousand species are in dire danger, this means that, when facing very serious threats, they could disappear very soon in the wild. For example, there are around 350 North Atlantic right whales left, some of the most threatened in the world.

Never forget that many animals disappeared from the face of the Earth in the 20th century, among them: passenger pigeons (1914), Tasmanian tiger (1936), Caribbean monk seal (1952), Caspian tiger (1970). ), the Javan tiger (1970) and the black rhinoceros (2011), just to name a few.

The profound crisis in biodiversity also affects people, because they depend on the natural world for food, medicine, clean water, air and climate regulation.

Under the threat of human activities, the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity, better known as COP16, began yesterday in Cali, Colombia.

COP16 follows the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (MGB), established during COP15, which set ambitious targets to halt and reverse biodiversity loss by 2050 and is expected to be the first major meeting to transform those commitments into world strategies -wide definite.

At COP15, the world committed to protect 30% of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, although to support life on the planet, it must be said that it is insufficient.

This meeting under the motto “Peace with nature”, attended by 23 thousand delegates, seeks at least five objectives:

1.- Implementation of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (MGB), in accordance with 4 objectives and 23 goals that seek to prevent and reverse the loss of nature, that is, protect and use biodiversity sustainably.

2.- Financing the MGB. Financial mechanisms will be discussed, as the global framework indicates a gap of more than 800 billion dollars. For this reason, it is proposed to fund at least 200 billion dollars every year for biodiversity.

3.- The direct participation of indigenous people and local communities. They are the guardians of biodiversity, as they have managed to protect 80% of the natural world in their territories, which, according to the Nature Conservancy, represents around 22% of the planet’s land.

4.- Analysis of national commitments to meet the goals of the Kunming-Montreal Global Framework. Of the 196 nations, on 21 October, 108 achieved some goals, although only 35 presented their complete National Biodiversity Plans (NBSAP), Colombia and Mexico are among these.

5.- Create a multilateral mechanism on the fair and just distribution of benefits deriving from digital information on sequences of genetic resources (DSI).

This last objective, framed in the principles of the Nagoya Protocol, is one of the most interesting, because the basic debate will be on the benefits that megadiverse countries can have on genetic information and the use made by the global genetics industry digital information about the DNA of plants, animals and microorganisms.

Digital sequence information refers to genomic data extracted from living organisms and is of great value to sectors such as biotechnology, pharmaceuticals and agriculture, as it can be used to develop medicines, vaccines and better seeds, among others.

Although many of these genetic resources come from megadiverse developing countries, they do not always receive a fair share of the economic, scientific or technological benefits arising from their use, especially when the genetic information without their prior consent or without sharing results in a fair manner.

The lack of an international framework to regulate the use of DSI and access to it has created tensions and debates between countries. This requires oversight and transparency.

Therein lies the challenge for nations with enormous natural wealth.

I hope that the negotiations at COP16, which ends on November 1, will bear fruit in the objectives set and put humanity on the right path to be at peace with nature, as biodiversity faces too many threats, including change in the climate.

The commitments and actions taken now will be decisive for the fate of all living beings and their habitats.