At COP16, Colombia seeks to lead by example on biodiversity
By Issam AHMED
United Nations, United States (AFP) Sept 23, 2024

As one of the world's most biodiverse countries, Colombia is determined to lead by example when it hosts an upcoming UN summit to save nature, Environment Minister Susana Muhamad told AFP on Monday.

Set to run from October 21 to November 1 in the western city of Cali, the 16th Conference of the Parties (COP16) of the Convention on Biological Diversity offers a pivotal moment to assess global progress toward the ambitious goal of protecting 30 percent of Earth's land and oceans by 2030.

"We've created a platform to put biodiversity on top of the global political agenda," said Muhamad, noting that more than 100 ministers and 12 heads of state, including Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Mexico's incoming president Claudia Sheinbaum, are expected to attend.

"As a biodiverse country, we also see the potential for our country and our region: it's a Latin American moment," she added, speaking at the United Nations in New York.

Few countries can rival Colombia's vast diversity of species and ecosystems, from the Andean highlands to the Amazon rainforest. Colombia ranks first globally in bird and orchid species diversity and second in plants, butterflies, freshwater fish and amphibians.

Muhamad acknowledged Colombia's own environmental challenges, however.

Large areas of forest have been cleared for illicit coca plantations used in cocaine production, and deforestation surged after the 2016 peace deal with the FARC rebel group, as former fighters turned to unregulated farming and ranching.

"Although we can say we have a voice that has been very clear on the international arena, we cannot say that Colombia has its problem solved," said Muhamad.

The minister began her journey as an environmental advocate while at university, before turning to politics upon realizing "this is, at the end, a power struggle."

Colombia's war with rebel groups is not over, with some dissident factions continuing to reject the peace deal signed with FARC.

In July, the EMC faction issued a threat to the COP16 meeting, warning that it "will fail."

Despite this, Muhamad expressed confidence in the conference's security plan, coordinated by Colombia's defense ministry and the United Nations security office, which will mobilize more than 10,000 personnel to protect the event.

Peace negotiations with armed groups are also ongoing, she added, with some dissident groups having publicly supported the COP.

- Nature for peace? -

Indeed, COP16's theme is "peace with nature," and Muhamad suggested that the outcomes of COP16 could contribute to peace efforts by "empowering and mobilizing local communities in regions where the armed struggle is happening, especially confronting illicit economies."

By focusing on biodiversity protection and promoting initiatives such as sustainable agriculture, eco-tourism and conservation projects, these communities could find new, sustainable opportunities.

At the last biodiversity COP in Montreal two years ago, nations signed a landmark "30x30" pact aimed at halting biodiversity loss and restoring ecosystems.

This year, the focus is on implementing those promises, said Muhamad, with a key priority being the creation of a body that would allow Indigenous communities to directly access funds for conservation efforts.

Another goal is the activation of a new fund that will enable countries in the Global South to better share in the financial rewards from the use of DNA and genetic resources from their native species -- resources that have been widely used in products such as drugs and vaccines.

Finally, said Muhamad, she would call on developed countries to ramp up their nature financing.

Many wealthy nations have historically sacrificed their own biodiversity to exploit resources for economic gain.

In Montreal, they pledged to provide at least $30 billion annually by 2030 to support developing countries in preserving the world's remaining species.

So far, pledges to a new fund created for this purpose have reached around $400 million, with roughly half of that amount disbursed.

Colombia's Inirida flower: from 'weed' to emblem for UN meeting
Inirida, Colombia (AFP) Sept 23, 2024 - When Ruben Dario Carianil began cultivating the unusual, pointy Inirida flower in the Colombian Amazon ten years ago, his relatives made fun of him for growing "weeds."

Today, the 63-year-old Carianil, of the Curripako tribe, grows tons of the curious blooms on a plot outside Inirida -- the jungle city of 30,000 people from which the flower took its name.

Carianil exports Inirida cuttings to the United States, Europe and Asia, and soon even more foreigners will be introduced to the rare blossom as the emblem of a UN biodiversity conference to be held in Cali from October 21 to November 1.

"I'm very happy," Carianil told AFP of his success, which he sees as helping, not harming, the environment.

"For us, Nature, the forest, is life. We Indigenous people respect it and we live in harmony with Nature without damaging it."

Inirida flowers once grew abundantly in the wild in the region. Over-picking led to a dramatic reduction and the government in 1989 prohibited harvesting.

The ban remained in place until 2005, when the door was opened for Inirida's commercial cultivation as long as wild populations remained untouched.

So far, only Carianil's farm has managed to grow, and get a licence to market, the red flowers with their hard, spikey, finger-like petals.

He was helped in the domestication process by biologist Mateo Fernandez.

At first, Carianil's blooms sold at the local airport, then in the Colombian capital Bogota some 700 kilometers (about 430 miles) away, then further afield.

In 2022, the first box of Inirida blooms was delivered to China from Colombia, one of the world's top flower growers and exporters.

- 'Eternal flowers' -

Carianil runs the business with his wife Martha Toledo and their children.

On a plot of some 20 hectares (49 acres), the Inirida crops share space with a variety of native shrubs and even a patch of undisturbed forest.

From the air, the farm looks very different from the flower plantations abundant in Colombia's Andean regions with their rows upon rows of monoculture, often in plastic greenhouses.

Fertilizers and pesticides are banned on Carianil's farm, and only Indigenous farming methods used.

"When you buy a flower from Inirida, you take a piece of the jungle home with you," said Toledo.

They call the enterprise "Liwi: Eternal flowers" as the buds retain their shape years after being cut, even when dried.

It is this longevity that inspired the choice of the Inirida as the logo for the 16th meeting of the Conference of Parties (COP16) of the Convention on Biological Diversity.

"This is a flower that never dies, its petals never fall apart. We hope that the COP16 in Colombia can help the world to make peace with Nature, so that we can sustain and maintain life on the planet forever," says Environment Minister Susana Muhamad.

The flower is native to Colombia's eastern Guainia department, of which Inirida is the capital, and a part of the neighboring Venezuelan Amazon.

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