UN gathering gears up for push to save planet’s biodiversity
By JAMEY KEATEN
Associated Press
GENEVA (AP) — Nearly all the world’s countries have kicked off a U.N.-backed meeting aimed at preventing the loss of biodiversity. The move is seen as critical to avoiding the extinction of many vulnerable species, the emergence of pathogens like the coronavirus and damage to both lives and livelihoods of people around the world — Indigenous peoples in particular. The two-week meeting of over 190 countries on the Convention on Biological Diversity, after a two-year delay due to the COVID-19 pandemic, is the last gathering of its kind before a major conference in coming months in Kunming, China, that will try to adopt an international agreement on protecting biodiversity.