UN Assistant Secretary-General and Director of the Regional Bureau for Latin America and the Caribbean of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) remarks to the Global Biodiversity Alliance Summit

His Excellency, Dr. Mohamed Irfaan Ali, President of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana

Your Excellencies, Presidents and Heads of State of Dominican Republic, Barbados, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Ecuador

Presidente Iván Duque 

Distinguished delegates

Dear Friends

All protocols observed.

As UN Assistant Secretary General and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean, it is an immense honor to address you during this high-level segment of the plenary of the Global Biodiversity Alliance Summit, on behalf of Antonio Guterres, United Nations Secretary-General, in this segment led by His Excellency Dr. Mohamed Ali, President of Guyana.

Mr. President, I convey to you the warm greetings of our Secretary-General, our gratitude for your hospitality, welcoming us, and recognitions to Guyana’s leadership in biodiversity conservation, as it is reflected in your Low Carbon Development Strategy 2030 and of course by hosting this important Summit. 

I would also like to salute and acknowledge the strong collaboration of the United Nations Country Team in Guyana -especially the contributions of UNEP, UNDRR, FAO and of course UNDP- in supporting national biodiversity vision and efforts under the leadership of Jean Kamau, UN Resident Coordinator in the country.

Excellencies, distinguished delegates, dear friends.

Environmental action is more urgent than ever before.

This is an evidence-based affirmation. 

The world’s temperature increase of 2.5 to 2.9°C is threatening irreversible damage to our climate, ecosystems, and human development at an alarming rate. 

Since 1970, monitored wildlife populations have plummeted 69%. 

Land degradation and resource scarcity are exacerbating conflict, challenging governance and undermining our shared development gains and the biodiversity financing gap now exceeds USD 200 billion per year.

But evidence also tells us that 2025 is a pivotal year to step up to the challenge of shifting from nature-negative to nature-positive pathways and recognizing the value of nature as the foundation of thriving, resilient societies and economies, as already explained by President Duque. And the time for action is now; this won’t happen by accident and there won’t be another chance. 

And this is precisely why we are here today, convened under the leadership of Guyana. In a world more interdependent and interconnected than ever before, only a renewed multilateralism will lead us to effectively address our common challenges.  We know what needs to be done, as the video shown this morning clearly showed. We need bold collective action to turn nature into an investment, not a cost.

Earlier this week, the UN Secretary-General reminded us that despite the enormous headwinds, we have reasons to be optimistic regarding what can be achieved when countries come together with conviction and focus. 

We saw this conviction and focus at Nice at the Third UN Ocean Conference. We saw it again in Seville at the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development, where countries agreed on a new global vision for finance—one that strengthens the voice and participation of developing countries in the institutions shaping their and our future.

And we are confident that this momentum will carry into COP30 in Brazil later this year.

The Global Biodiversity Alliance Summit is a cornerstone of that momentum. It reflects the Sustainable Development Goal 17 in action: a global partnership held in an exuberant country with more than 85% forest cover, showing that leadership in biodiversity can come from those at the frontline of conservation. 

As the United Nations Development Programme, we reaffirm our commitment to double down efforts in coordination with the UN country teams and development partners to continue supporting national biodiversity strategies and objectives, linking nature, climate, and development as part of the same, and translating high level commitments such as the ones, included in the declaration, into tangible results. 

From aligning National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans with Nationally Determined Contributions, the NDCs, to promoting sustainable land use, and restoring ecosystems -through a USD 3.9 billion portfolio, our Nature Pledge-, we will continue working with countries to deliver on the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework making nature central to resilience, development, and sustainable growth. 

Through our Biodiversity Finance Initiative (BIOFIN), active now in 133 countries and with US$ 1.6 billion mobilized, we will continue supporting countries to design and implement financing solutions that align national priorities with global biodiversity goals, institutionalizing biodiversity investments into national budgets and policies, and opening new markets, ensuring long-term and systemic impact.

Before concluding, excellencies, dear friends, as Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean I cannot avoid referring to the most biodiverse region in the world and the most democratic of the developing regions in the world.

And I cannot miss the opportunity to refer to the unique potential that this region offers to lead the way forward a nature-based development.  A leadership that we are seeing and witnessing in this room, and doing this through democratic mechanisms, which is not minor.

Our 2025 Regional Human Development Report—Under Pressure: Recalibrating the Future of Development and our upcoming Democracy and Development Report, to which President Duque honored us with his contributions in this important effort, are invitations to untap this potential, to reimagine our collective future, and to identify the escape valves to transform the enormous levels of pressure over democracies and development in our region into a positive force for improving lives and creating shared prosperity, which at the end translates into constructing and building peace.

One thing is very clear out of these two reports: this would be only possible through biodiversity conservation as central to all development efforts and through multilateral cooperation. Once again, this is a matter of choice; this won’t happen by accident as Prime Minister Mottley already mentioned.

Excellencies, dear friends, let this Summit of the Global Biodiversity Alliance be a true inflection point. Let it be a moment to inspire one another, to exchange solutions, and forge partnerships that will deliver real, lasting impact for every country represented here and for the planet that we all share – with a sense of urgency, but also with firm hope for what we can achieve acting together, protecting biodiversity together.

Thank you.