UN gathering on saving planet's biodiversity kicks off in shadow of Russia-Ukraine war

Nearly all the world’s countries kicked off a UN-backed meeting Monday aimed at preventing the loss of biodiversity — seen as critical to avoiding the extinction of many vulnerable species, the emergence of pathogens such as the coronavirus, and the damage to both lives and livelihoods of people around the world, Indigenous peoples in particular.

The two-week meeting on the Convention on Biological Diversity is being held in the Swiss city of Geneva and will be the last gathering of its kind before a major conference in Kunming, China, that will try to adopt an international agreement on protecting biodiversity.

The meeting