'Trees, birds' take out rally at biodiversity summit in Montreal: report
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New Delhi: Hundreds of activists descended on the streets of Montreal on Saturday in costumes looking like birds, trees and caribou, demanding justice for the natural world. Montreal is hosting the two-week summit of COP15.
They marched braving sub-zero temperatures saying that about 1 million plant, insect and other animal species now threatened with extinction.
The protesters claimed that the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) might fail to meet the urgency of the issue, according to India Today.
Esmeralda Wirtz of the Global Youth Biodiversity Network who travelled from Belgium to attend the summit said that what is happening at the negations is not sufficient hence protesters are on the street.
The Saturday's march was organized by global civic movement, Avaaz whose director Oscar Soria reportedly said "Governments have had years to reach the agreement we need to save our planet's biodiversity from extinction."
The two-week summit, attended by representatives from 193 countries, aims to prevent extinction of species from human activities.
The summit is considering 24 targets including protecting 30% of the world's land and sea by 2030 and pollution cuts.
Oscar Soria claimed that there would not be enough time for negotiations to make the ambitious deal before the summit closes on December 19.
The Montreal Police on horseback, bicycle and foot watched over the protest coursing through the streets.
Protesters made calls to protect human rights of Indigenous groups that struggle to prevent nature loss on their lands.