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Crucial UN biodiversity summit set for October
PARIS, March 19, 2021 (BSS/AFP) – The United Nations’ biodiversity summit,
COP15, will take place in October in the Chinese city of Kunming after being
delayed a year due to the pandemic, the UN said Friday.
The meeting is seen as a vital chance for nations to set guidelines for
protecting nature and slowing the catastrophic pace of species loss.
The UN said the summit would be held October 11-24, just a few weeks
before a parallel UN conference on climate change, COP26, takes place in
Glasgow.
A preliminary biodiversity session will be held in August, it said,
although a location is yet to be announced.
UN biodiversity chief Elizabeth Maruma Mrema said organisers were doing
all they could to ensure COP15 took place at the rescheduled time “while also
ensuring the safety of all participants in the context of the COVID-19
pandemic”.
Since 1970, wild animal populations of birds and fish have declined by
nearly 70 percent, according to a WWF assessment.
The UN said in September that nations had missed every one of the 20 ten-
year targets to halt biodiversity loss they set themselves in 2010.
BSS/AFP/SSS/1853 hrs