It’s the day before the Global Biodiversity Alliance Summit, and Guyana is taking a leading role in addressing the growing biodiversity crisis with a focus on funding, science, and teamwork.
Speaking on the United Alliance for Biodiversity Podcast, Environmental Economist and Director of Climate and REDD+, Pradeepa Bholenath, underscored the gravity of the moment.
“We are losing 10 million hectares of forest annually,” she said, adding, “Over one million species face extinction, not in the next century, but within this decade.”
The stakes, she said, could not be higher.
The Summit, championed by President Mohamed Irfaan Ali, will convene heads of state, global scientists, indigenous leaders, private sector representatives, and international NGOs to forge a cohesive global response.
The summit’s key goal is to establish a framework that turns conversation into commitment, and commitment into action.
Bholenath outlined the three pillars at the heart of the Alliance’s work, which are crucial to climate change defence and mitigating the effects of global warming. These are Biodiversity Financing Initiatives: scaling up predictable, long-term investments in conservation, especially for forest-based and indigenous communities.
Another pillar of the Alliance’s work, Bholenath related, is Advocacy, which focuses on creating tools such as a proposed Global Biodiversity Index to track progress and hold the world accountable in a way that is transparent.
The Environmental Economist said that Conservation is the third pillar, which involves integrating science, local stewardship, and turning private-sector innovation into policy and practice.
This moment builds on Guyana’s long-standing green vision, dating back to its pioneering 2009 Low-Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS).
“We’ve shown that economic progress and environmental protection can go hand in hand,” Bholenath said.
Across two days, the Summit will first focus on species extinction, deforestation, and wetland loss with an eye on solutions. Key participants will include experts from Oxford and Yale Universities, Conservation International, the World Bank, and others.
Outcomes from the summit will be included in the COP30 climate talks in Brazil. These talks are slated for November, making biodiversity a central part of global climate negotiations.
Reflecting on the journey, Bholenath added, “We cannot just keep talking about the nature of the crisis and extemporise on what the nature of the problem is. That problem will remain a problem unless we resource governments… and most importantly, resource forest-based communities with what they need to conserve the biodiversity.”
In convening its first Global Biodiversity Alliance Summit, Guyana will use the opportunity to focus on creating a market for biodiversity credits, scaling biodiversity conservation debt swaps, accelerating biodiversity bonds, establishing a blueprint for biodiversity taxonomies, and promoting nature’s positive action.
