While the thousands of delegates gathered at COP15 at the Palais des Congrès will continue their discussions, Saturday, a great march for the “living” will take the streets of Montreal by storm in order to “sound loud and clear the expectations of the population towards governments of the world” participating in this United Nations conference on biodiversity.
The Great March for the Living, whose departure is scheduled for 1 p.m. at the foot of Mount Royal, is organized by the Collective of Quebec civil society for COP15, which brings together 67 organizations, its allies, as well as indigenous delegations from around the world. entire.
The aim of the mobilization is to send a “powerful signal” to countries negotiating the next Global Diversity Framework, a world-class international agreement that will structure global efforts to safeguard ecosystems for the next decade, organizers say. .
“Civil society and the entire population have a vital role to play in demanding that countries adopt the ambitious and socially just measures required by the overlapping crises of biodiversity loss and climate change”, can -we read in the notice sent to the media on Saturday morning.
The groups behind the march stress that their main demand concerns the protection of human rights, including the protection of indigenous peoples. According to them, the protection of biodiversity cannot be accomplished without respecting “the rights, worldviews, governance structures, cultures and knowledge systems of indigenous peoples and local communities whose territories are home to a large majority of the world’s biodiversity”. .
The march will close with speeches and demands from representatives of indigenous peoples and spokespersons from the organizing coalitions.
Several politicians have already confirmed their presence, including the spokespersons of Québec solidaire, Manon Massé and Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois.