Keywords
biodiversity
ecological awareness
How to Cite
Abstract
COP16 in Cali in October 2024 and its conclusion in Rome in February 2025 proved to be an event that overflowed the official convention, catalyzing a wide range of citizen and academic initiatives running parallel to the deliberations among States. These included the International Congress on Environmental Education with 3,000 participants, the territorial leaders' "Environmental Gathering" (Juntanza Ambiental), the "Alternative COP," the "Citizen COP" in Yumbo, and the "COP DiverGente," each with specific approaches to rivers, global dynamics, and local conflicts. The National University of Colombia, Palmira campus, also contributed high-value conferences.
One of the most innovative contributions was the "Citizen COP16," where the "Circus of the Joy of Being Part of Nature" had a profound impact on children and young people through a playful yet rigorous pedagogical device, accompanied by an "Environmental Innovation Fair" that showcased proven ecotechnologies, including the total elimination of mercury in gold extraction.
These "other COPs" also highlighted the critical features of the contemporary polycrisis: the synergy between climate change, biodiversity loss, and environmental pollution, intensified by global dynamics such as extractivism, inequality, and the erosion of democracy, and the vulnerability of countries like Colombia to the acceleration of planetary boundaries. They also showed that the current institutional response is advancing at a pace far slower than the rapid ecosystem deterioration demands at all planetary levels.
Together, these initiatives underscored the urgency of a comprehensive transformation that links urban integration with ecosystems, incorporates ecological economics into decision-making, strengthens environmental education through innovative approaches, and calls for a more organized citizenry to safeguard a real, inclusive, and transparent democracy capable of restoring a harmonious relationship between society and nature.
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