As Guyana prepares to host the inaugural Global Biodiversity Alliance Summit next month, Annette Arjoon-Martins, Project Director of the Guyana Marine Conservation Society has outlined the need for international partners to focus on initiatives that complement instead of duplicating existing conservation efforts.
Arjoon-Martins made those comments during a recently aired episode of the United for Biodiversity: The Alliance Podcast. She highlighted that Guyana has already made significant progress through local and national partnerships, which international stakeholders can build upon.
“I would want to think that the international forum, with all of the key international players could look at, okay, what areas are working really well already in partnerships that we could build upon even more, especially when it comes to our biodiversity protection and the next steps to really ramp it up,” she said.
At the same time, she noted that new areas in need of support could benefit from fresh investment and expertise if done in a “in a real, meaningful way, with well thought out programmes that complement rather than compete.”
Guyana is poised to take a leading role in global biodiversity protection with the upcoming launch of the Global Biodiversity Alliance, an initiative aimed at reversing environmental decline worldwide.
The summit is scheduled for July 23 to 25 at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre in Georgetown. The event will convene world leaders, scientists, Indigenous representatives, and innovators to strengthen international partnerships, secure concrete commitments, and advance efforts to conserve 30% of the planet’s land and oceans by 2030, a global target known as “30×30”.
