United Kingdom’s Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, David Lammy, MP, has commended His Excellency Dr Mohamed Irfaan Ali for spearheading the first-of-its-kind ‘Global Biodiversity Alliance (GBA) Summit, bringing together strong advocates for nature in Guyana.
The inaugural conference opened on Wednesday at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre (ACCC), with Caribbean leaders, global experts, and heads of state in attendance. It is a brainchild of President Ali in keeping with the Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS) 2030.
During his virtual remarks, the secretary of state emphasised that biodiversity loss is a serious threat as climate change, noting that “The impact of lost biodiversity hotspots is felt from Georgetown to London in the food we eat and the air we breathe.”
Despite global efforts, the world’s biodiversity resources continue to decline, but the UK member of parliament Lammy remained adamant that there is hope through action.
These include raising finance via innovative tools such as “green bonds” and biodiversity credits, investing in education and research to find nature-based solutions, and most importantly, empowering local and indigenous communities who are the “best stewards of nature.”
The UK has been contributing to this discussion and has been one of the top contributors to the Global Biodiversity Framework Fund, which helps developing countries access sustainable finance.
“We continue to back innovative research on nature by the new 24 million pound National Environment Research Council Programme launched this year to support ambitious, high-risk, high reward environmental projects, and we’re driving forward programmes on issues like strengthening local people’s forest rights,” he noted.
Initiatives like these, MP Lammy explained, can be successful, but strong political will is required.
To this end, he commended President Ali’s leadership in advancing the importance of biodiversity, saying that Guyana’s immense biodiversity is a gift from past generations and “all of us have a duty to preserve, so that we too can pass it on to the next generation.”
The secretary of state, along with his wife Nicola Green, founded the Sophia Point Rainforest Research Centre at River’s View in Region Ten in 2023. It was birthed out of his love for Guyana and his desire to give back to his country.
