Amy Echeverria, Columban International Coordinator for Justice, Peace and Ecology, will represent Columban missionaries in Cali, Columbia, 21st October -1st November 2024 at the United Nations Biodiversity COP 16. She is attending as part of an international multifaith coalition of leaders.
The purpose of attending these international summits is to bear witness to the global community that people of faith are committed to advocating for the protection and restoration of biodiversity.
Biodiversity is the bedrock of life on Earth, underpinning our global economy, combating climate change, and sustaining the food systems that nourish the world. Yet we are witnessing an unprecedented crisis; habitats are vanishing, and up to a million species face extinction, threatening the lives and livelihoods of billions of people who depend on them.
This year’s COP is the first since the signing of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF) in 2022. One critical aspect of COP 16 that Columbans and the Faiths for Biodiversity network are monitoring is how countries update their National Biodiversity Action Plans to align with the Goals and Targets of the KMGBF.
“We know that the KMGBF is imperfect,” said Echeverria, “but it is a valuable tool available to civil society to hold governments and businesses accountable to the commitments made. It is also a tool that we, as an international Catholic organization, can use to keep ourselves accountable in our decisions, lifestyle, ministries and spirituality to care for the web of life.”
COP 16 will further develop the monitoring framework and advance resource mobilization for the KMGBF. COP 15 was about agreeing to targets for protecting nature – COP 16 is about accountability in showing concrete plans for meeting those targets.
You can read the Columban Missionaries statement on COP16 here: https://www.columban.org.au/catholic-mission-files/pdf/feature/2024/columbans-message-on-the-un-biodiversity-cop-16.pdf
You can read a report by Earthbeat/NCR on ‘Faith coalition at UN biodiversity summit presses countries to deliver on pledges’ which quotes Columban JPIC Co-ordinator Amy Echeverria here: https://www.ncronline.org/earthbeat/science/faith-coalition-un-biodiversity-summit-presses-countries-deliver-pledges