Combating climate change, protecting biodiversity and sustaining food systems of the world were top of the agenda at the COP16 in Cali, Colombia. In this episode, Kadambari Raghukumar was in Colombia to talk to two New Zealanders attending the world's largest biodiversity conference with the aim to bring a Kiwi perspective to some of the planet's biggest challenges.

A couple of weeks ago delegates from around the world met at what was at the world's biggest nature protection conference, the 16th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity, or simply, COP16.

New Zealand had a few representatives at the conference participating in these crucial discussions.

In this episode we feature Lisbon-born, Wellington-based Bruno Marquez, President of the International Federation of Landscape Architects and Manu Caddie, co-founder of Rua Bioscience.

While it naturally was a ten-day period dotted with a lot of music and culture, the Colombian government going all out with wanting to create an impression, the reality that was being discussed by delegates was a little less fun.

The planet faces an unprecedented crisis with habitats vanishing, and up to a million species face extinction and the lives and livelihoods of billions of people who depend on them are at threat.

The reason why being at COP16 is so critical for someone like Bruno Marquez is that landscape architecture goes well beyond aesthetics and covers nearly everything from urban settlement to biodiversity loss and social inequity - all topics that are under scrutiny here at COP16, with a focus on giving the platform to indigenous groups to secure their role in decision-making.

Manu Caddie known best for his work focussed on development for pharmaceuticals, natural health products and bio-derived composites, participated in dialogues with indigenous groups from Colombia around the push to recognize natural genetic resources and allocate funds for profits made from them, be that through biotech or pharmaceuticals.

After brutally lengthy debates, some of which ended in disarray around the lack of funding for conservation, COP16 also had some benchmark outcome - like the first ever agreement that recognises people of African descent and Indigenous Peoples as key drivers in conserving nature. 

The historic decision allows them to participate in future decisions on nature conservation and rules on the use of genetic information.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details