Latin American science unites against the loss of biodiversity

The loss of biodiversity, climate change and pollution will generate potential losses of approximately 44 trillion dollars (half of the world's GDP), associated with sectors that depend to some extent on nature. The consequences of the loss of biodiversity are increasingly serious: it affects soil and water, fundamental resources for agriculture and health; generates imbalances in natural ecosystems; accelerates the proliferation of pests; and increases CO₂ emissions, among others.

To stop this situation, it is necessary to put scientific knowledge into practice, generate communication channels that allow the parties to dialogue and accelerate the implementation of science-based policies that permeate national development agendas and business strategies.

With the aim of contributing to the positioning of science with another perspective, CAF - development bank of Latin America and the Caribbean - promotes the event Science with the voice of Latin America and the Caribbean, for positive biodiversity, on August 28, 2024 from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. in the Parque del Chicó in Bogotá, which aims to generate spaces for dialogue between scientific institutions and provide conclusions to enrich the discussions at COP16. These conclusions will be collected in a document that will be presented at the Latin American and Caribbean Pavilion organized by CAF.

“At CAF we are promoting the presence of scientists and representatives of international financial institutions, with the aim of providing a new vision with the voice of Latin America and the Caribbean to the challenges of biodiversity. At COP16, CAF will have a pavilion open to all countries in the region, which will be a place for dialogue and visibility, where innovative initiatives will be presented in ecosystems such as mangroves, the Amazon, the Caribbean, biogeographical Chocó, Patagonia and the Galapagos. Likewise, it will have spaces in the area set up in Cali for meetings with civil society and social agents,” said Alicia Montalvo, manager of Climate Action and Positive Biodiversity at CAF.

CAF's commitment to an ecosystem and science approach

Latin America and the Caribbean is one of the richest regions in terrestrial and marine biodiversity. The Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) values ​​the region's terrestrial and coastal ecosystem services at $24.3 trillion per year. The region contains six of the seventeen most megadiverse countries in the world (Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru and Venezuela), covers between 60% and 70% of all known species, approximately 25% of tropical forests and the most biodiverse habitat in the world: the Amazon rainforest.

In this context, CAF has adopted in its operations the ecosystem approach that responds not only to the needs of the countries for the integrated management of land, water and living resources, but also to those of their ecosystems for their conservation and use of resources. in a sustainable and equitable manner.

Some examples of this new approach are the Program for the Integrated and Sustainable Management of Sargassum in the Greater Caribbean, which will benefit Mexico, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Jamaica, the Dominican Republic, Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago and Venezuela thanks to the promotion of the sustainable management of sargassum. Other examples are the project to restore coral reefs in Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico and Costa Rica, The Americas Flyways Initiative (AFI), which aims to identify and conserve more than 30 critical landscapes along migratory routes that span North America, Central America, South America and the Caribbean, or projects to strengthen the management of protected natural areas in Bolivia, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador and Panama.