World leaders arriving for UN climate confce

BOGOTA, Oct 18 (AFP): Thousands of delegates from around the world are descending on Colombia for a summit on halting humankind's rapacious destruction of nature, with host city Cali on high alert after threats from guerrilla groups.

The high-stakes UN biodiversity gathering is set to start Monday under the protection of some 11,000 Colombian police and soldiers, aided by UN and US security personnel.

About 12,000 delegates including 140 government ministers and seven heads of state are due to attend the world's biggest nature protection conference, held every two years.

The 16th Conference of the Parties (COP16) to the UN's Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) will run to November 1.

Themed "Peace with Nature," it has the urgent task of coming up with monitoring and funding mechanisms to ensure that 23 UN targets agreed in 2022 to "halt and reverse" species destruction can be met by 2030.