World leaders, environmental activists and prominent researchers have begun to arrive in Cali, Colombia, for a COP16 biodiversity summit that experts say will be decisive for the fate of the world’s rapidly declining wildlife populations.

• The main aim of the summit is to cease the rapid destruction of the nature.
• Delegates in Cali will discuss strategies to combat the rapid destruction of the environment and fulfil the commitments made in the 2022 accord.
• The Cop16 UN biodiversity summit is expected to welcome 190 countries and 15,000 people with the goal of protecting the world’s flora and fauna.
• Ecologists warn ecosystems are reaching an inflection point where the extinction of species could begin to accelerate.
• Cop16 is the first time countries will meet to discuss global biodiversity since the Kunming-Montreal agreement in 2022 when world leaders made a series of unprecedented pledges to protect the natural world.
• Ecologists say the number of the world’s animals, plants, fungi and microorganisms are collapsing under the pressures of deforestation, pollution and the climate crisis.