On Wednesday, Georgetown, the capital of the Cooperative Republic of Guiana, opened the Global Alliance for Biodiversity, where prominent scientists, international leaders and representatives of the original community are attending two days to develop a road map to move forward in order to preserve biological diversity around the world.
In his speech with the opening of the summit, President Mohamed Irfan Ali warned that biological diversity in the world is in a crisis, and stressed the need to enhance international commitment to protecting biological diversity in the world.
President Ali said that the summit is being held at an urgent time, stressing that biological diversity around the world is at risk of extinction. Every year, it is lost, estimated at 10 million hectares of forests. One million types of extinction are facing. The wetlands fade 3 times faster than the forests.
He added that “the world is approaching irreversible turning points in the main environmental systems, from coral reefs to savanna and rainforests, and these changes are not far or abstract, but rather real, immediate and destructive, and the impact of all of this on the world is dangerous.”
President Ali stressed that with all those risks that are monitored, “the destruction continues, not because of ignorance, but because of the ignorance. In many cases, the true value of biological diversity in national accounts, absent from financial statements, and overlooking the boards of management and budgets are ignored.”
According to the Guyana government, this conference, which continues until Friday, represents a strategic event, and is seen as an opportunity for countries to unify their efforts and enhance the global movement to protect the planet’s biological diversity.
Goyana also seeks to be a state of the global alliance for biological diversity, and sets itself as a model for global sustainability efforts by embracing the summit and across its policies in the field of environment and climate.
Among the goals of the summit is the formal nature of the global alliance of biological diversity, the launch of innovative financial mechanisms such as biological diversity credits, green bonds, and debt bodies of nature, and enhancing the target of 30 x 30, i.e. preserving at least 30% of the planet’s lands and oceans by 2030.
In this context, President Ali pointed out that challenges cannot be confronted in isolation from each other, and stressed the need for countries and institutions to build strong, flexible and sustainable partnerships, and unleash innovative financing, including biological diversity credits, green bonds, and debt bodies of nature.
The land of diversity and many water
Goyana, which has an area of about 215 thousand square kilometers, and includes 835 thousand multi -ethnic and religions, is a strategic location of the summit. This country in South America is characterized by amazing levels of biological diversity, and forests cover about 85% of its territory area, and the number of types of plants is estimated at about 8 thousand species, half of which is considered a settlement.
The country is famous for the rainforest, which includes waterfalls, mountains, and savanna. It also has some of the longest rivers and the highest waterfalls in the world, the most famous of which is the “Kaitur” waterfalls, which flow of about 660 cubic meters of water every second on a slope with a height of 226 meters, which makes it one of the strongest and largest unilateral waterfalls in the world.
The famous “Euocrama” forest is located in the heart of Guyana, and it contains an amazing set of biological diversity vocabulary, including more than 1500 species of plants, 200 species of mammals, 500 species of birds, 420 species of fish, and 150 types of reptiles and amphibians.
Guyana is known as “the Land of the Many Water”, referring to a network of water corridors, bays and rivers that cover most of the country, including the “Esikoybo”, one of the largest rivers in South America, along with the largest eldest tropical rain forests in South America.
Guyana, bordered by Venezuela from the West and Brazil to the south, and Surinam to the east, overlooks the Atlantic Ocean from the north, the gift of virgin nature, and therefore in 2009 it launched its leading carbon -low development strategy, which experts saw a radical reconsideration of how a developing country dealt with economic growth.
The rainforests, which cover about two -thirds of the country, are stored about 19.5 billion tons of carbon dioxide. Experts believe that instead of considering these forests obstacles to development, Guyana realized that they are vital and important wealth in combating climate change globally.
In 2015, the huge oil discoveries of the American company Exxon Mobil were put in front of a decisive turning point, as the oil stock that is estimated at 11 billion barrels is a sponsoring of the country’s economic pattern radically, but the state chose to update and enhance its low -carbon strategy, and developed a sustainable development strategy for 2030.
In this context, President Mohamed Irfan Ali stressed at the opening of the summit that Guyana “continues her leadership in implementing the revised and expanded carbon development strategy that builds on previous successes to enhance the ability to adapt to the climate and preserve forests and a diverse carbon -low economy for all Guanin.”
Environmental systems in Guiana – according to President Ali – provide more than 15.2 billion dollars annually from their services, and 96% of this value comes from non -market services.
The country’s forests generate revenues through sustainable forests and carbon credits. In 2022, Guyana became the first country to obtain a private sector accreditation based on forests, which led to the conclusion of an agreement worth $ 750 million with the American Hess Energy Company.
This deal includes the sale of 37.5 million carbon balance (about 30% of the total credit release) between 2022 and 2032, with the minimum prices increased from $ 15 to $ 25 per ton, and the share of 60% of revenue for a for a two -year if market prices exceed these minimum limits.
Diversity bet
In a context, President Mohamed Irfan announced, in the context of the Guyana State in Social and Biological Diversity, the launch of the World Biodiversity Alliance, during the work of the 79th session of the United Nations General Assembly in September 2024.
The primary goal of the alliance is to coordinate governments, NGOs, actors in the private sector, indigenous peoples and local communities to achieve the goals of preserving biological diversity at various levels.
The initiative obtained full support from the leaders of the Caribbean Group as part of the intense efforts made by the region to address the climate crisis in the 49th meeting of the Caribbean Governments Conference, which was held in Montigo Bay in the State of Jamaica in the beginning of July.
It is expected that the expected results of the summit will include a joint advertisement, which confirms the obligations to protect biological diversity, financial agreements that guarantee resources for conservation efforts, and a work plan for 2025, which defines a 5 -year road map with measurable goals.
The summit will also define experimental initiatives in the main countries, with a focus on data -based preservation efforts through the producer of global biological diversity and the Biodiversity Index, and taking a decisive step towards a unified international movement to preserve biological diversity.
