Beware human rights abuses in name of conservation, warns indigenous activist – live

Here is the UN secretary general’s speech from the summit opening.

Presidents and prime ministers from Kyrgyzstan, Mozambique, Zambia, Costa Rica, Georgia, Estonia and Botswana are up next.

We’ll bring you the highlights of what they say. Costa Rica is a small but mighty country when it comes to UN environment negotiations. President Carlos Quesada has been active behind the scenes generating more financial resources for protecting ecosystems and biodiversity.

The leaders dialogue on addressing biodiversity loss and mainstreaming biodiversity for sustainable development is underway. Statements from Angela Merkel and Imran Khan got us started.

The German chancellor said extinctions are accelerating at a pace never before seen in the history of humanity. She said the world must turn the tide on biodiversity loss by expanding the protection of areas, restoring ecosystems and directing financial resources to protecting plants and animals.

Imran Khan, the prime minister of Pakistan, detailed his country’s 12 climatic zones from the peak of K2, the world’s second highest mountain, to the tropics on the Pakistani coast. He said his government is dedicated to their protection.

We are going to take a short break now before the next leaders’ dialogue. It will be chaired by Angela Merkel and Imran Khan on addressing biodiversity loss and mainstreaming biodiversity for sustainable development.

That will begin at 3pm in New York and 8pm UK time.

President Jair Bolsonaro has also been hitting back at Democratic candidate Joe Biden about the comments he made about the Amazon in last night’s debate.

Boris Johnson has been addressing the summit.

From the tiniest of plants to the mightiest, most majestic megafauna, the natural life that so enriches our planet today is declining at a pace that is truly terrifying.

Almost 70 per cent of the world’s wildlife has been lost in the past half century – a lifetime to many of us but the blink of an eye in the grand sweep of planetary evolution.

As many as one million species of plants and animals are threatened with extinction.

We are on the brink of a world in which the orangutan and the black rhino can be found not in the jungles of Borneo or the savannahs of Africa, but confined to the pages of history books.

And consider the pangolin- that scaly mammalian miracle of evolution boasting a prehensile tongue that is somehow attached to its pelvis.

I don’t believe any of us would choose to bequeath a planet on which such a wonderfully bizarre little creature is as unfamiliar to future generations as dinosaurs and dodos are to us today.

Dr Alexander Lees a senior lecturer in conservation biology at Manchester Metropolitan University has reacted to the statement from the Polish president:

It was good to hear the Polish president Andrzej Duda‘s commitment to preserve its forests, among the most extensive and most important left in Europe. However, let us not forget that the European Commission had to order an emergency ban on logging in Poland’s flagship UNESCO-protected Bialowieza Forest, the finest old growth forest left in Europe. Logging activity between July 2015 and June 2018 impacted 4073 hectares of forest and led to a 26% increase in habitat fragmentation. The statement from the president that these forest habitats have been “preserved and multiplied” therefore rings a little hollow. We cannot expect countries in the global south to look after their primeval forest habitats if countries in the global north neglect theirs.

Bolivian president Jeanine Anez tells the summit that current economic development models have led to unprecedented changes to the planet, including the climate crisis and biodiversity loss. She says Bolivia is among the most biodiverse countries in the world, listing the amphibians, mammals and flora that are endemic to the South American country. Anez finishes by reconfirming her country’s commitment to multilateralism to combatting biodiversity loss.

Please refresh the blog from time to time. We are updating and tweaking posts as we go.

The meeting has technically adjourned for two hours but due to the quantity of world leaders that want to make a statement, the pre-recorded videos have continued.

We will bring you the most important news lines from speakers and analysis on what has been said so far.

The summit makes it clear conserving biodiversity improves human well-being. While this may be true on a macro scale, conservation can have real local costs and the tradeoffs are far from simple, says Prof Julia P G Jones, a conservation scientist from Bangor University in Wales. She says:

These challenges occur everywhere. Small-holder farmers clearing forest for agricultural are often made poorer by forest conservation (even if that forest conservation makes sense at the national and international scale)… a major dam might provide much-needed energy, but block rivers, change ecosystems and harm biodiversity.

Those involved in the talks are aware of the challenges faced by countries trying to reconcile conservation and development. Jones argues that these challenges should be more explicitly acknowledged. “This would help the global conservation community move forward more positively post-2020,” she adds.

The pre-recorded statements from world leaders on nature to the summit have continued.

South African president Cyril Ramaphosa says the consumption of wild species and habitat loss are driving pandemics and biodiversity loss. He highlights the “complete interdependence between economic activity and human development. He calls for a change in consumption patterns and land management strategies, implementing sustainable and climate-friendly practises.

Kenyan president Uhuru Kenyatta says 2020 has given humanity a chance to get back on track with its relationship with nature. Kenya is one of a small number of mega-biodiverse countries, he says, and must make sure it is protected.

Nigerian president Muhammadu Buhari refelects on the flora and fauna that are facing extinction in his country.