The UN's 16th biodiversity summit began on Monday in Cali, Columbia, with nearly 200 nations in attendance and approx. 23K delegates registered to participate.
The summit is the sixteenth Conference of Parties (COP16) of the UN's Convention on Biological Diversity. The convention was signed in 1992 with the objective of conserving biological diversity and ensuring "fair and equitable sharing" of utilizing genetic resources.
With natural habitats across the world vanishing at a dangerous speed, now more than ever the international community must come together and commit to solutions to this environmental crisis. Biodiversity is integral to the Earth's sustainability – without immediate action it may be too late for this alarming trend to ever be reversed.