Hard-fought nature funding deal reached at UN talks

Countries strike delicate compromise on raising billions needed to protect species

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ROME – Nations cheered a last-gasp deal to map out funding to protect nature on Feb 27, breaking a deadlock at United Nations talks seen as a test for international cooperation in the face of geopolitical tensions.

Rich and developing countries hammered out a delicate compromise on raising and delivering the billions of dollars needed to protect species, overcoming stark divisions that had scuttled their previous meeting in Cali, Colombia, in 2024.

Delegates stood and clapped in an emotionally charged final meeting that saw key decisions adopted in the final minutes of the last day of rebooted negotiations at the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation headquarters in Rome.

Ms Susana Muhamad of Colombia, president of the 16th Biodiversity Conference of the Parties (COP16), hailed the fact that countries worked together for a breakthrough, enabling progress "in this very fragmented and conflicted world".

"This is something very beautiful because it is around protecting life that we have come together, and there cannot be anything higher than that," she added.

The decision comes more than two years after a landmark deal to halt the rampant destruction of nature this decade and protect the ecosystems and wildlife that humans rely on for food, climate regulation and economic prosperity.

Scientists have warned that action is urgent.