<p><p>In a world where <a href="/story/news/nation/2023/05/23/animal-species-declines-study-extinction/70247057007/">as many as half of animal species are "sliding towards extinction,"</a> an important United Nations meeting on biodiversity this week could hold a key to protecting nature's richness across the globe.</p><p>The <a href="https://www.cbd.int/conferences/2024">U.N. conference on biodiversity</a> kicked off Monday in Cali, Colombia and will run through November 1. Here's what to know:</p><img width="100%" /><h2>What is COP16?</h2><p>U.N. names for conferences are just plain confusing. This one is officially called the 2024 <a href="https://www.cbd.int/">United Nations Biodiversity Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity</a>. It's COP 16 because it's the sixteenth such meeting that's taken place.</p><p>COP, or the Conference of the Parties, means all the members who signed on to the U.N.'s Convention on Biological Diversity are meeting together. That's a total of 196 nations. Launched in 1993, that group's <a href="https://www.cbd.int/history">goal is to conserve the world's biological diversity</a> by getting countries and regions to take action.</p><p>The meetings happen every two years.</p><h2>Why is COP 16 important?</h2><p>In 2022, at the last COP biodiversity meeting in Montreal, a historic deal was reached that included a commitment to protect 30% of the most important land and water for biodiversity by 2030. Called "30 by 30," it was meant to stop the destruction of critical ecosystems, a goal that the governments taking part pledged to support with $200 billion.</p><p>At the meeting in Colombia this week, those same governments are supposed to present how they're working to meet that target as well as negotiate over finding new funding to support the efforts.</p><h2>Why is biodiversity important?</h2><p>Ecosystems are just that - systems. <a href="https://wdfw.wa.gov/species-habitats/at-risk/species-recovery/gray-wolf/influence">If you want to have wolves, you've also got to have everything from elk, deer, moose, to beaver, mice, squirrels, rabbits, muskrats, marmots, grouse, and songbirds</a>. If any one of those species goes extinct it can cause a cascade reaction that destabilizes the entire ecosystem.</p><p>That causes all sorts of unintended consequences which can affect humans. Passenger pigeons went extinct in the 1890s when farming destroyed their habitat and hunting wiped out the rest. That in turn changed the composition of American hardwood forests because the pigeons were important for seed dispersal.</p><p>Species can also be important in ways that aren't currently known, whether it's a source of medical drugs, as food or as a link in an ecosystem chain that isn't easily understood.</p><img width="100%" /><h2>Why is there a COP 16 when there was just COP 28?</h2><p>Here's where the U.N.'s confusing naming system makes things complicated.</p><p>COP 28 was the <a href="https://www.un.org/en/climatechange/un-climate-conferences#:~:text=Every%20year%2C%20countries%20who%20have,198%20Parties%20to%20the%20Convention.">United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change</a> to the Conference of the Parties, because it is a conference of the parties or countries that signed the climate change agreement. There are 198 countries that are party to the convention.</p><p>It's best known for creating the <a href="/story/news/world/2015/11/26/paris-climate-talks-5-things-know/76357910/">Paris Agreement</a> of 2016, a legally binding international treaty that agreed to set a target of limiting global temperature increase to 2°C above pre-industrial levels, which is 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit.</p><p><a href="/story/news/nation/2023/11/30/cop28-and-climate-change-temperature-threshold/71729217007/">COP 28 took place last year in the United Arab Emirates</a>. The twenty-ninth such meeting of all the signatories <a href="https://unfccc.int/cop29">will take place next month in Baku, Azerbaijan</a>.</p><p>The first of these COP meetings was in 1995 in Berlin. The numbering is slightly off because COP 26 was postponed for a year because of COVID-19. It's pronounced cop (as in police).</p></p>
In a world where as many as half of animal species are "sliding towards extinction," an important United Nations meeting on biodiversity this week could hold a key to protecting nature's richness across the globe.
The U.N. conference on biodiversity kicked off Monday in Cali, Colombia and will run through November 1. Here's what to know:
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What is COP16?
U.N. names for conferences are just plain confusing. This one is officially called the 2024 United Nations Biodiversity Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity. It's COP 16 because it's the sixteenth such meeting that's taken place.
COP, or the Conference of the Parties, means all the members who signed on to the U.N.'s Convention on Biological Diversity are meeting together. That's a total of 196 nations. Launched in 1993, that group's goal is to conserve the world's biological diversity by getting countries and regions to take action.
The meetings happen every two years.
Why is COP 16 important?
In 2022, at the last COP biodiversity meeting in Montreal, a historic deal was reached that included a commitment to protect 30% of the most important land and water for biodiversity by 2030. Called "30 by 30," it was meant to stop the destruction of critical ecosystems, a goal that the governments taking part pledged to support with $200 billion.
At the meeting in Colombia this week, those same governments are supposed to present how they're working to meet that target as well as negotiate over finding new funding to support the efforts.
Why is biodiversity important?
Ecosystems are just that - systems. If you want to have wolves, you've also got to have everything from elk, deer, moose, to beaver, mice, squirrels, rabbits, muskrats, marmots, grouse, and songbirds. If any one of those species goes extinct it can cause a cascade reaction that destabilizes the entire ecosystem.
That causes all sorts of unintended consequences which can affect humans. Passenger pigeons went extinct in the 1890s when farming destroyed their habitat and hunting wiped out the rest. That in turn changed the composition of American hardwood forests because the pigeons were important for seed dispersal.
Species can also be important in ways that aren't currently known, whether it's a source of medical drugs, as food or as a link in an ecosystem chain that isn't easily understood.
![]()
Why is there a COP 16 when there was just COP 28?
Here's where the U.N.'s confusing naming system makes things complicated.
COP 28 was the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change to the Conference of the Parties, because it is a conference of the parties or countries that signed the climate change agreement. There are 198 countries that are party to the convention.
It's best known for creating the Paris Agreement of 2016, a legally binding international treaty that agreed to set a target of limiting global temperature increase to 2°C above pre-industrial levels, which is 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit.
COP 28 took place last year in the United Arab Emirates. The twenty-ninth such meeting of all the signatories will take place next month in Baku, Azerbaijan.
The first of these COP meetings was in 1995 in Berlin. The numbering is slightly off because COP 26 was postponed for a year because of COVID-19. It's pronounced cop (as in police).
