This decade leading up to 2030 is a critical one for life on Earth: are we going to help the Earth heal herself and sustain us all? Or are we going to squeeze the last drop of inflated profits until nature collapses?

Governments around the world will meet in Cali, Colombia from 21 October to 1 November at the 16th Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). The CBD convention was ratified by 196 countries in 1992 with the objective to maintain the world’s ecology and meets every other year.

Banner at Montreal’s l’Anneau as COP15 Begins. © Toma Iczkovits / Greenpeace
Greenpeace Canada activists drop a 46-foot tall banner inside Montreal’s l’Anneau structure, on the heels of the opening of the UN Biodiversity Conference (COP 15). L’Anneau symbolizes the strong union between Montreal and visitors from around the world. Greenpeace is calling on state delegates visiting Montreal for COP15 to work together and secure an ambitious deal that protects nature and centres Indigenous rights. © Toma Iczkovits / Greenpeace

A global framework to protect biodiversity (humans included)

First up on the agenda in Cali will be making progress on the implementation of the historic 2022 Kunming-Montreal Agreement framework to protect global biodiversity, which established global targets to protect nature and give her space to regenerate.

Nature is a network of life, and we rely on biodiversity – or biological diversity – for water, air, and food, among other provisions as complex as medicine, scientific advancement, and the development of technologies. Research shows that wildlife populations have declined on average 69% since 1970, as experts believe we are in the midst of a mass extinction – the sixth such major die-off event that scientists have documented in Earth’s history.

Toucan in Calilegua National Park. © Martin Katz / Greenpeace
Calilegua National Park is the nucleus of the Biosphere Reserve of the Yungas area of UNESCO and protects 76,306 hectares of one of the most biodiverse environments of Argentina. Oil exploration takes place there without ambient impact study, violating the National Parks Law, the Native Forest Law and the Hydrocarbons Law. © Martin Katz / Greenpeace

We simply cannot afford to continue destroying nature.

What we can do

A new tool tracks governments’ progress on delivering their commitments to the global biodiversity framework.

The UN Biodiversity COP16, will be the first round of global biodiversity talks since 2022. But since then, the destruction of biodiversity has only accelerated. Big Agribusiness, industrial fishing, fossil fuel extraction, deep sea mining, and corporate profits for the rich remain threatening our planet.

Great March led by Indigenous leaders for Biodiversity and Human Rights during COP15. © Greenpeace / Toma Iczkovits
On December 10th, hundreds of Quebec and international civil society organizations led by Indigenous delegations sent a powerful signal to countries that are currently gathered in Montreal for COP15 to negotiate the next Global Biodiversity Framework. This key international agreement will shape global efforts to preserve ecosystems for the next decade. At the forefront of these demands was protecting human rights, including protecting Indigenous peoples and reversing biodiversity loss. © Greenpeace / Toma Iczkovits

World leaders have not stopped this extraction, or even slowed it down.

Governments around the world continue to enable corporations to profit off our collective loss and scrape away the profits they extract. Wealthy governments in Europe, Oceania, East Asia, and North America, who have historically profited off the colonial extraction of nature’s resources from the Global South, have yet to meet their commitments to deliver finance to support biodiversity protections. In turn, protection is still lacking in Global South countries, and in areas such as rainforests, coral reefs and seamounts where biodiversity is richest and perhaps most critical.

Bintepuna River in Papua New Guinea. © Paul Hilton / Greenpeace
An aerial view of the Bintepuna river as top soil moves into the clear blue waters. The river flows through Papua New Guinea’s forests which are the third largest, and some of the most diverse, on Earth. © Paul Hilton / Greenpeace

The 2022 global biodiversity framework presents an opportunity that we must act on in Cali. Our governments have a critical opportunity to change course, but we need real action in the form of money, rights, regulations and policies. Failure to take bold steps forward now puts our future at risk.

You also can urge global leaders to bring their commitments to the Global Biodiversity Framework to life by sharing your message of hope for nature.

August Rick is International Communications Officer for Greenpeace East Asia.