2nd GBA conference: Pres Ali proposes “solution labs” among initiatives to advance biodiversity conservation

– as China, St Lucia become newest members of Alliance

With the aim of ensuring actionable outcomes from the second Global Biodiversity Alliance (GBA) conference held over the past two days in Georgetown, President Dr Irfaan Ali has proposed several initiatives that would see ideas and discussions being transformed into tangible results over the next year aimed at protecting and conserving the world’s natural resources.

Held under the theme: “Investing in Nature: Accelerating Biodiversity Finance for Sustainable Development,” the two-day conference got underway on Friday and brought together leading global researchers, thinkers, financial institutions, policymakers and other key stakeholders with the aim of closing the financing gap for nature. Addressing participants on Day Two of the summit, President Ali on Saturday welcomed the announcements of new partnerships, scientific collaborations, new approaches to financing and new conservation commitments.
But the Guyanese leader noted that the aim is for the GBA to not just be a platform for discussion but where action gets started. To this end, President Ali proposed several steps to advance the work of the Alliance and its membership over the next 12 months.
“I would like us to establish what we might call ‘GBA solution labs’ – small focus groups bringing together the right expertise to work through the difficult questions that still stand between good ideas and practical action. These should not simply be permanent committees organised around broad subjects, they should focus on specific problems that need solving. One might look at how to make biodiversity credits investable, another at overcoming barriers to private sector biodiversity finance, another at translating scientific discovery into practical conservation programmes,” he noted.
According to the Guyanese Head of State, these groups will be tasked with examining proposals rigorously; test what is realistic; identify obstacles, and develop solutions that can actually be implemented and financed. In doing this, they will bring together Governments, scientists, investors, businesses and communities to find practical, balanced solutions that can command broad support. The President has identified Senior Director of Climate and REDD+ in the Office of the President, Pradeepa Bholanath, to lead a working group on designing how the labs will operate and set their first priorities. This plan, according to Ali, must be ready by the end of November.
Reminding that the central theme of this year’s conference is biodiversity finance, the President went on to propose an investment and financing summit, likely for London in June 2027, bringing together international financing institutions and the global private sector to work together to mobilise funding for biodiversity initiatives.
The President’s plan builds on a challenge he issued during the conference opening ceremony on Friday, for each biodiversity-rich member countries in the Alliance to develop investment-ready projects before the next meeting.
According to the Head of State on Saturday, “We want the GBA to work with all members in identifying projects that we can complete, projects that we will help, through the secretariat to build out technically, to present the investors… So, by the time we get to June, we have to have projects ready to be presented, opportunities ready to be presented. We’ll bring together all the players in finance, philanthropic, international donor agencies, private sector investors, bond market. But we cannot get [there] not ready.”
To this end, a coordinating team will be established within the GBA Secretariat to work with at least 20 to 30 biodiversity-rich member countries. In fact, he noted that within the almost 150-member Alliance, there are sufficient technically expertise – researchers, academia, technology – to support this work. Ali believes that the GBA membership must be put to work.

New member countries
When the Alliance was launched by President Ali in July 2025, it had 17 founding members spanning Governments, financial institutions, indigenous representatives and other key stakeholders. Since then, however, the membership has grown significantly to now some 149. During Friday’s opening ceremony, six new countries received membership certificates: Colombia, Rwanda, Panama, India, France and the United Kingdom (UK). On Saturday, President Ali announced two other new member countries – St Lucia and China.
“So, we now have a lot of the big players… Think about that membership of the GBA. An initiative that was launched in this room just a year ago, now has country members that represent well over two thirds of the world’s people… The GBA now includes some of the smallest countries in the world and the two largest countries in the world by population: India and China,” Ali said.
Noting that the best way to develop a shared solution is to harness all the world’s brain and ideas and human energy, Ali went on to outline plans to harness advanced technologies to bolster the work of the Alliance. This, he pointed, is where member countries like India could play a major role. “We cannot avoid this. If we are to be relevant [we must] identify and advance the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and quantum computing to make sure all our work is at the forefront of what is possible using advanced advances of today. Technology innovators and scientists from small countries and big countries, our academic institutions working together can provide breakthroughs that the world so badly needs… [India has] a lot of technology and expertise in geo mapping, in geo audit, and so on. We are leveraging the full opportunity within the membership of the GBA here… We have to decide how we want to use the technology, how AI is going to be used, [and] what role AI is going to play in this ecosystem,” the Head of State noted. According to President Ali, advancing these initiatives over the next 12 months would ensure that promising ideas turn into actionable proposals.