Environmental delegates gather in Colombia for a conference on dwindling global biodiversity

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Global environmental leaders gathered Monday in Cali, Colombia to assess the world’s plummeting biodiversity levels and commitments by countries to protect plants, animals and critical habitats.

The two-week United Nations Biodiversity Conference, or COP16, is a follow-up to the 2022 Montreal meetings where 196 countries signed a historic global treaty to protect biodiversity.

The accord includes 23 measures to halt and reverse nature loss, including putting 30% of the planet and 30% of degraded ecosystems under protection by 2030.

In opening remarks on Sunday, Colombia's environment minister and COP16 president Susana Muhamad said the conference is an opportunity “to collect the experience that has passed through this planet from all civilizations, from all cultures, from all knowledge ... to generate livable, relatively stable conditions for a new society that will be forged in the light of the crisis.”

All evidence shows dramatic decline in species abundance and distribution, said Linda Krueger, director of biodiversity at The Nature Conservancy.

“A lot of wild species have less room to live, and they’re declining in numbers,” Krueger said. “And we also see rising extinction rates. Things that we haven’t even discovered yet are blinking out.”

The world is experiencing its largest loss of life since the dinosaurs, with around 1 million plant and animal species now threatened with extinction, according to the United Nations Environment Programme.

In the Amazon rainforest, threats to biodiversity include the expansion of the agricultural frontier and road networks, deforestation, forest fires and drought, says Andrew Miller, advocacy director at Amazon Watch, an organization that protects the rainforest.

“You put all of that together and it’s a real threat to biodiversity,” Miller said.

Global wildlife populations have plunged on average by 73% in 50 years, according to the WWF and the Zoological Society of London biennial Living Planet report this month.

The report said Latin America and the Caribbean saw 95% average declines in recorded wildlife populations.

Indigenous people are on the front lines of protecting biodiversity and fighting against climate change, putting their lives at great risk, said Miller of Amazon Watch.

“A lot of discourse has been given about the voices of local communities … Indigenous peoples really playing a key role,” he said. “So that’s one of the things that we’ll be looking for at COP16.”

Indigenous peoples hold the solutions to combat the climate change and biodiversity crises, said Laura Rico, campaign director at Avaaz, a global activism nonprofit.

“They're who have been taking care of the land, healing the land through their governance systems, their care systems and their ways of life,” she said. “So ... it's fundamental that the COP recognizes, promotes and encourages the legalization of their territories.”

In Colombia’s capital, Bogota, the head of an Amazon Indigenous organization said the region's Indigenous people have been preparing for months for COP16.

“This is a great opportunity to make the impact that we need to demonstrate to all the actors that come from other countries the importance of Indigenous peoples for the world,” said José Mendez, secretary of the National Organization of the Indigenous Peoples of the Amazon.

“It's no secret to anyone that we ... are at risk right now,” he said. “The effects that we are currently experiencing due to climate change, the droughts that the country is experiencing, the Amazon River has never gone through a drought like the current one. … This is causing many species to become extinct.”

Environment minister Muhamad told local media this month that one of the conference's main objectives is to deliver the message that “biodiversity is as important, complementary and indispensable as the energy transition and decarbonization.”

Part of Colombia's first ever leftist government, Muhamad cautioned last year's World Economic Forum about the risks of continuing an extractive economy that ignores the social and environmental consequences of natural resource exploitation.

Since the 2022 Montreal conference, “progress has been too slow”, says Eva Zabey, executive director of the coalition Business for Nature.

“There's been some progress," she said. “But the headline message is the implementation of the global biodiversity framework is too slow and we need to scale and speed up.”

“COP16 comes at an absolutely critical moment for us to move from targets setting to real actions on the ground,” Zabey said.

Although biodiversity declines are grim, some environmentalists believe a reversal is possible. “We’ve had some very successful species reintroductions and we’ve saved species when we really focus on what is causing their decline,” said The Nature Conservancy's Krueger.

__

Follow Steven Grattan on X: @sjgrattan

__

The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

An artist puts the finishing touches on a mural a day ahead of the COP16 United Nations biodiversity conference, in host city Cali, Colombia, Saturday, Oct. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)

Wayuu Indigenous Colombians perform during the opening ceremony of COP16, a United Nations' biodiversity conference, in Cali, Colombia, Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)

People maneuver by boat through the low level of a tributary that connects with the Amazon River, in Isla de la Fantasia, on the outskirts of Leticia, Colombia, Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Ivan Valencia)

Signs of drought are visible on the Amazon River, near Leticia, Colombia, Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Ivan Valencia)

A sculpture adorns the green zone, a day ahead of the COP16 United Nations biodiversity conference, in host city Cali, Colombia, Saturday, Oct. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)

Huang Runqiu, China's minister of ecology and environment, delivers a speech at the opening ceremony of COP16, a United Nations' biodiversity conference, in Cali, Colombia, Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)

An Indigenous Brazilian delegate attends the opening ceremony of COP16, a United Nations' biodiversity conference, in Cali, Colombia, Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)

Animals in risk of extinction display is exhibited in the green zone, a day ahead of the COP16 United Nations biodiversity conference, in host city Cali, Colombia, Saturday, Oct. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)

Police stand guard in front of a hotel a day ahead of the COP16 United Nations biodiversity conference, in host city Cali, Colombia, Saturday, Oct. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)

Colombia's Minister of Environment Susana Muhamad talks to the press before the opening ceremony of COP16, a United Nations' biodiversity conference, in Cali, Colombia, Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)

Colombia's President Gustavo Petro delivers a speech at the opening ceremony of COP16, a United Nations' biodiversity conference, in Cali, Colombia, Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)

Afro-Colombian women perform during the opening ceremony of COP16, a United Nations' biodiversity conference, in Cali, Colombia, Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)

HAVANA (AP) — Cuba's widespread blackouts stretched into their fourth day as Hurricane Oscar crossed the island’s eastern coast with winds and heavy rain.

In Santo Suárez, part of a populous neighborhood in southwestern Havana, people went into the streets banging pots and pans in protest Sunday night. The protesters, who say they have no water either, blocked the street with garbage.

Energy Minister Vicente de la O Levy said in a news conference he hopes the electricity grid will be restored on Monday or Tuesday morning.

But he said that Oscar, which made landfall on the eastern coast Sunday evening, will bring “an additional inconvenience” to Cuba's recovery since it will touch a “region of strong (electricity) generation.” Key Cuban power plants, such as Felton in the city of Holguín, and Renté in Santiago de Cuba, are located in the area.

Oscar later weakened to a tropical storm but its effects were forecast to linger in the island through Monday.

Some neighborhoods had electricity restored in Cuba’s capital, where 2 million people live, but most of Havana remained dark. The impact of the blackout goes beyond lighting, as services like water supply also depend on electricity to run pumps.

People resorted to cooking with improvised wood stoves on the streets before the food went bad in refrigerators.

In tears, Ylenis de la Caridad Napoles, mother of a 7-year-old girl, says she is reaching a point of “desperation.”

The failure of the Antonio Guiteras plant on Friday, which caused the collapse of the island's whole system, was just the latest in a series of problems with energy distribution in a country where electricity has been restricted and rotated to different regions at different times of the day. The status of Cuba's other power plants was unclear.

People lined up for hours on Sunday to buy bread in the few bakeries that could reopen.

Some Cubans like Rosa Rodríguez have been without electricity for four days.

“We have millions of problems, and none of them are solved,” said Rodríguez. “We must come to get bread, because the local bakery is closed, and they bring it from somewhere else.”

The blackout was considered to be Cuba’s worst since Hurricane Ian hit the island as a Category 3 storm in 2022 and damaged power installations. It took days for the government to fix them. This year, some homes have spent up to eight hours a day without electricity.

Cuba’s government had said Saturday that some electricity had been restored. But the 500 megawatts of energy in the island’s electricity grid, far short of the usual 3 gigawatts it needs, had quickly decreased to 370 megawatts.

Even in a country that is used to outages as part of a deepening economic crisis, Friday’s collapse was massive.

The Cuban government has announced emergency measures to slash electricity demand, including suspending school and university classes, shutting down some state-owned workplaces and canceling nonessential services.

Local authorities said the outage stemmed from increased demand from small- and medium-sized companies and residential air conditioners. Later, the blackout got worse because of breakdowns in old thermoelectric plants that haven’t been properly maintained, and the lack of fuel to operate some facilities.

Cuba's energy minister said the country's grid would be in better shape if there had not been two more partial blackouts as authorities tried to reconnect on Saturday. De la O Levy also said Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela and Russia, among other nations, had offered to help.

Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america

Residents play dominoes during a massive blackout after a major power plant failed in Havana, Cuba, Saturday, Oct. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

Residents endure the heat during a massive blackout after a major power plant failed in Havana, Cuba, Saturday, Oct. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

Residents pass the time during a massive blackout after a major power plant failed in Havana, Cuba, Friday, Oct. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

Residents line up to buy bread during a massive blackout after a major power plant failed in Havana, Cuba, Saturday, Oct. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

A resident walks his bicycle during a blackout following the failure of a major power plant in Havana, Cuba, Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

Residents pass the time at the malecon during a blackout following the failure of a major power plant in Havana, Cuba, Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

Residents pass the time during a blackout following the failure of a major power plant in Havana, Cuba, Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

Residents walk on a street during a blackout following the failure of a major power plant in Havana, Cuba, Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

Residents walk on a street during a blackout following the failure of a major power plant in Havana, Cuba, Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

Residents walk on a street during a blackout following the failure of a major power plant in Havana, Cuba, Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

A resident walks his bicycle during a blackout following the failure of a major power plant in Havana, Cuba, Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

A resident looks at his cell phone on the street during a blackout following the failure of a major power plant in Havana, Cuba, Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

Residents walk on a street during a blackout following the failure of a major power plant in Havana, Cuba, Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

Residents protest by banging pots and pans in Havana, Cuba, Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)