The UN’s 16th COP biodiversity summit begins in Colombia on Monday and is being held as habitats vanish with up to a million species threatened with extinction.
The meeting, which will focus on ways to protect animals, plants and habitats, is being held in one of the world's most biodiverse countries. Our correspondent Michelle Begue reports.
#nature #environment #wildlife #cop16 #colombia #un
The meeting, which will focus on ways to protect animals, plants and habitats, is being held in one of the world's most biodiverse countries. Our correspondent Michelle Begue reports.
#nature #environment #wildlife #cop16 #colombia #un
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00:00snow-capped Andes Mountains, mangroves along the Atlantic and Pacific coasts,
00:09semi-arid deserts, and vast wetlands. You can see it all here in Colombia, from the
00:17high-altitude Andean ecosystem, the Paramos, to the dense vegetation of the
00:23Amazon rainforest. These vastly contrasting landscapes combine to make
00:30Colombia the second most biodiverse country in the world.
00:36According to the World Wildlife Fund, Colombia has more bird, amphibian,
00:42butterfly, and frog species than anywhere else on our planet.
00:50It has the first spot on the number of amphibians, fourth in mammals, and second
00:57in birds. All those numbers in the variety of animals concentrated in this
01:02small area. That is what places us in the top list of countries with the most
01:08biodiversity.
01:12This biodiversity has been threatened by decades of agricultural expansion,
01:18illegal deforestation, and growing urbanization. Colombia is reportedly
01:24losing around 1,500 square kilometers of forests annually. That's an area around
01:3125 times the size of Manhattan. More than half the loss is Amazon rainforest.
01:39Colombia has tried to slow the devastation by putting more than 30% of
01:44its territory under federal protection. A Colombian ecologist says these regions
01:51are like islands that should be connected by ecological corridors that allow the
01:56movement of species between them.
02:00If you think about climate change, the environment becomes inadequate for
02:04certain species that need to move. And if you have this protected area surrounded
02:10by clearings, these species are condemned to extinction. So the next step is
02:16thinking about the connectivity of these areas. These and many other issues
02:21surrounding biodiversity conservation and climate action is what we can expect
02:26at this year's United Nations Biodiversity Conference, hosted this year
02:30in Cali, Colombia.
02:34The national government is rolling out the red carpet to receive an estimated
02:3812,000 people, including citizens, experts, and government officials from
02:44around the world. As the summit's logo, Colombia has chosen a rare native flower,
02:50the Inidida, that can only be found in Colombia. It is resilient, capable of
02:56surviving both floods and droughts, a living symbol of hope as the world
03:03grapples with the effects of climate change, pollution, and loss of
03:07biodiversity.