— invites development banks, impact investors and sovereign wealth funds to join global alliance

With the urgent need to triple global financing to meet the targets of the biodiversity conservation targets, Guyana is issuing a clarion call to action.

President Dr. Irfaan Ali, the country’s Head of State is urging development banks, impact investors, sovereign wealth funds, and other financial institutions to step up and ensure that funding reaches where it is most critically needed, particularly in the Global South.

Speaking at the opening ceremony of the inaugural Global Biodiversity Summit being held at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre (ACCC), Liliendaal, Greater Georgetown, Dr. Ali this morning emphasised the urgency of protecting biodiversity, noting the loss of 10 million hectares of forest annually and the extinction of one billion species.

The world, he said, is quickly approaching an “irreversible tipping point” as key ecosystems are coming under siege.

“We invite development banks, asset managers, impact investors and sovereign wealth funds to join us, because financing nature is not charity. It is insurance. It is resilience. It is a return on investment,” the President said.

The summit which will run for three days will bring together a high-level group of international leaders for three days of dialogue and collaboration on biodiversity preservation.

“The global biodiversity Alliance is a call to arms, a rallying cry to governments, institutions, investors, communities and citizens.

“ It is built on three powerful convictions, one, that biodiversity is the infrastructure of life. Two, that measuring biodiversity is a foundation of meaningful action. And three, that the best thing in biodiversity is not a luxury, it is a necessity,” President Ali added.

As key discussions unfold today, Guyana is expecting a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the Government of Yale Center for Biodiversity and Global Change.

The summit which will run for three days will bring together a high-level group of international leaders for three days of dialogue and collaboration on biodiversity preservation