GEORGETOWN, Guyana (CMC) — A two-day Global Biodiversity Alliance Summit began in Guyana on Wednesday, with Guyana’s President Dr Irfaan Ali saying that the event is taking place at a time of “unprecedented emergency” but yet an immense opportunity to save the planet.

The conference has brought together world leaders, biodiversity experts, key stakeholders from various sectors, and local community representatives with the main objective being to strengthen international commitment and advance the consolidation of the Global Biodiversity Alliance.

The summit will also serve to align efforts, define joint goals and formalise the necessary steps toward creating a global coalition focused on biodiversity conservation and restoration.

“This is our answer to GDP (gross domestic product). This is how we move from intention to evidence, from commitment to consequence,” Ali said, urging all stakeholders to adopt the necessary tools “so that we can speak a common language and hold each other accountable”.

“My friends, the stakes could not be higher. The moment could not be more urgent, but an opportunity has never been greater. We are not here to admire the problem, we are here to build solutions. We are not here to repeat promises, we are here to create accountability, we are not here to lament what has been lost, we are here to protect what remains,” he told the audience, adding “Let us be remembered as a summit that changed the trajectory of our planet.”

“Let us rise together as a global diversity alliance. Let us show the world we can build an economy that honours nature, a development model that values life and a future that is abundant not in extraction, but in restoration,” Ali added.

He said history should record that while the world stood at the brink of ecological collapse, it was the voices of small states, forest people and moral conviction that sparked a global awakening.

The organisers say that the Global Biodiversity Alliance Summit is a call to action, a platform for global collaboration, measurable commitments and innovative solutions to protect 30 per cent of the world’s land and oceans by 2030.

They said that a critical component of this process is the emphasis on measurement, indicators and monitoring to ensure accountability and track progress. The introduction of the Global Biodiversity Product and a comprehensive Gross Biodiversity Power Index will be central to this effort, enabling stakeholders to assess the real impact of conservation initiatives and guide future actions.

“The summit will provide a key space for countries and participating organisations to demonstrate their commitment to biodiversity, discuss collaboration strategies and structure a common roadmap that includes robust mechanisms for monitoring and evaluation,“ he said.

In his feature address to the opening ceremony, President Ali said the intention of the summit is not to launch an initiative but to ignite a global movement to protect the living fabric of the planet.

“I am proud that this movement begins here in Guyana…we could not overcome these challenges individually, we must build strong, resilient, sustainable partnerships so that we could overcome all the headwinds and storms that will come our way,” Ali said.

He said across the globe, biodiversity is under siege and every year, an estimated 10 million hectares of forest are lost, one million species face extinction and wetlands are vanishing three times faster than forests.

Ali said that the world is also approaching “irreversible tipping points” in key ecosystems from coral reefs to savannahs to rainforests.

“These changes are not remote or abstract. They are real, immediate and devastating. They affect the water we drink, food we eat, the air we breathe. They affect our jobs, our health, our economies, our cultures…They affect our very survival”.

Alli said that scientists have warned that the world is facing its “sixth mass extinction” and “yet the destruction continues, not due to ignorance, but due to invisibility because too often the true value of biodiversity is ignored”.

He said Guyana is proud to serve as a convenor of this summit as part of the efforts to end this “invisibility”, adding Guyana is a high forest low deforestation country with over 85 per cent of the land covered in lush carbon rich rainforest.

He said the Caribbean Community (Caricom) country has long stood as a pioneer of environmental leadership, championing sustainable development and protection of the world’s natural heritage.

He said in the 1990s Guyana made an unprecedented commitment by setting aside one million acres of pristine forest for an international imitative which is a model for sustainable forest management.

“Guyana further cemented its leadership by forging a landmark forest partnership with Norway…one of the first climate financed agreements in the world and has since become a global model,” Ali said.

But he said despite the intrinsic values, biodiversity remains “grossly underfunded” with countries investing just under US$200 billion annually in nature.

“But to meet the biodiversity framework, we need at least US$700 billion annually. That means we must more than triple global finance for nature and we must ensure that this finance flows to where it is most needed, especially in the global south,” he said.

He said the Global Biodiversity Alliance will prioritise this and is committed to scaling blended finance to de-risk investment in nature-based enterprises, piloting biodiversity credits, expanding debt for nature swaps, and supporting community-driven finance models that place indigenous leadership at the centre.

“We invite development banks, asset managers, impact investors and sovereign wealth funds to join us,” Ali added.