Big guns descend on Cali for final push in UN biodiversity talks

A report issued by nature watchdogs said only 17.6 percent of land and inland waters, and 8.4 percent of the ocean and coastal areas, are within protected and conserved areas. © Luis ACOSTA / AFP

Cali (Colombia) (AFP) – Heads of state, ministers and UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres arrive in Cali Tuesday hoping to add impetus to grinding talks on ways to save nature from human destruction.

The 16th so-called Conference of Parties (Cop16) to the UN's Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) has the urgent task of coming up with monitoring and funding mechanisms to achieve 23 nature protection goals agreed in Canada two years ago.