— 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, on Wednesday, 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 a ‘irreversible tipping point’ as key ecosystems are coming under siege.

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

“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.

ECONOMIC REVOULTION
The Alliance, he explained further, has five pillars, first to advance the global goal of conserving at least 30 per cent of land and oceans by 2030; secondly to embed biodiversity in national and corporate planning through measurable indicators.

Its third pillar will be focusing on unlocking innovative finance, including biodiversity credits, green bonds and debt for nature swaps.
Fourthly, the empowerment of Indigenous peoples and local communities is crucial, alongside the establishment of institutionalized monitoring and transparency mechanisms, such as the Global Biodiversity Product and the Gross Biodiversity Power Index.

“Let us be clear, this is not just an environmental imperative. This is an economic revolution. This is an economic revolution; we now have rigorous, credible evidence of what biodiversity is worth.”

“This is not just a story of birds, it’s the story of hope. Nature is not only about carbon or commerce it’s about connection, it’s about what it means to be human, you must protect not just biodiversity but biocultural diversity,” the President added.

LEADERSHIP
President Ali further reminded of the country’s pioneering role in global environmental leadership, referencing its Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS) which was first established in 2009.

Over the decades, the LCDS has evolved from a pioneering 2009 framework to the current LCDS 2030, which aims to align domestic development with global climate and biodiversity goals making Guyana a notable example for other nations.

“Through our low carbon development strategy, we have demonstrated how economic growth, and environmental structure can co-exist. We are the first country in the world to be paid at national scale for forest carbon.”

The country has been able to lead in innovating in areas such forest carbon and biodiversity credit sustainable forestry, community, tourism and low carbon finance and now hopes to take its leadership to higher heights with biodiversity credits.

At Wednesday’s summit Mr. Luis Abinader, President of the Dominican Republic; Mia Mottley, SC, MP, Prime Minister of Barbados; Hon. Dr. Ralph Gonsalves, Prime Minister of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines; Duque Márquez, Former President of the Republic of Colombia; Dr. M. Sanjayan, Chief Executive Officer, Conservation International (CI); Dr. Alexander Killion, Managing Director, Center for Biodiversity and Global Change, Yale University; Dr. Christof Schenck, Executive Director, Frankfurt Zoological Society (FZS); Dr. Erin Hagen, Senior Director of the Keller Science Action Center, Chicago Field Museum; Brian O’Donnell, Director of the Campaign for Nature; Derrick John, Chairperson, National Toshaos Council, Guyana; Leroy Ignacio, Makushi Conservation Leader, South Rupununi Conservation Society (SRCS);Hon. María José Pinto, Vice President of the Republic of Ecuador; Mr. Mauricio Velasquez, Principal Executive-Ecosystems & Biodiversity, Bank of Latin America & Caribbean (CAF) and Mr. James Cooper, Head of Origination EMEA Environmental Products, Mercuria/ Silvania officially inked the declaration for the alliance.