Nature House
Project: Nature House at COP16
Partners: UN CBD
House Partners: Nature2 and
Conservation International
The Brief
In October, 2024, Project Everyone (PE) made its debut at the UN Biodiversity Conference (UN CBD COP), a particularly crucial gathering that presented a unique opportunity.
We joined global leaders at COP16, the first CBD meeting since the groundbreaking 2022 Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) was adopted. A historic action plan to halt and reverse biodiversity loss for the benefit of all life on Earth by 2030.
For PE, COP16 also marked the culmination of an 18-month project, which saw us reunite with The New Division, the Swedish design agency that collaborated with us on the Global Goals’ visual identity. This time, we partnered to develop the UN CBD’s Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) brand.
Our challenge, mirroring our 2015 work on the SDGs, was to create an accessible and recognisable identity, translating this complex agreement into an actionable plan.
The official GBF branding reveal on COP16’s opening day provided the perfect platform to showcase our work and, building on our Goals House experience, launch a unique convening space for fostering community, partnerships, and action on biodiversity.
The Approach
INSPIRATION
We worked with a range of partners over four months to carefully curate the programme, hosting twenty-five events over four days.
Our ambition was to create an inclusive, dynamic space where all can learn, challenge, and collaborate to put nature on a path to recovery; a lush oasis for delegates to forge connections and have authentic conversations beyond the negotiations hall.
Nature House was framed through two strategic lenses: a space of inspiration, where partners and community come together to deliver a diverse programme underpinned by our values, and secondly, a space of celebration, showcasing the best of Colombian culture and Cali’s distinctive heritage through a curated food, music, and art offering.
INSPIRATION: PROGRAMMING, PARTNERS AND COMMUNITY
Our four-day programme, built in collaboration with our partners, focused on three thematic areas articulating the GBF: Arts & Culture, Finance, and The Road to COP30. Carefully curating each session, this was an opportunity for Project Everyone to:
Explore a range of formats: Breakfasts, roundtables, workshops, lunches, in conversations, panels, receptions, dinners and nightcaps. Evening events pulsed with salsa classes and performances from local Colombian artists.
Collaborate with a range of partners: From Earthrise to Microsoft, Nia Tero to Business for Nature, we brought together partners across the Project Everyone ecosystem within civil society, government, UN, private sector and creative industries.
Draw in new audiences: Leaders at the intersection of nature, climate, creative, finance, and tech industries. Indigenous voices took center stage, with Monday’s programming dedicated to critical areas of engagement for indigenous peoples and advocates.
Approach thematic content more creatively: Spanning topics from radical collaboration for nature restoration to the power of the world restoration economy, from land defenders’ challenges to creating transformative change toward COP30. Our content bridged the GBF with issues at the intersection of the Global Goals.
Lift language barriers: Whether as speakers or attendees, enabling all non-English speaking guests to contribute and share in the language of their choice. Events featured English, Spanish, Portuguese, and a number of indigenous languages from across the Amazon Basin, with live translation provided at select sessions, a first step towards ensuring language accessibility is no longer a barrier for engagement.
“Unequivocally, these experiences are the most touching, memorable, and inspiring moments I have ever had the privilege of enjoying”
CELEBRATION: COLOMBIAN CULTURE
Platforming and celebrating Colombia and Cali’s vibrant heritage – its world-famous salsa and rich Afro-Colombian roots – was paramount to Nature House. This was achieved through three focus areas:
Music: Curating with local collective BICHE brought the House alive with Kike Torres’ salsa rhythms, Pacífico ensemble La Mapana’s performances, and Bomba Estéreo’s Simon Mejía’s DJ set with supporting act from Mother Nature. The space echoed with native sounds, from the iconic garden frogs to the mysterious sounds of the Atrato River specially recorded as part of the Around the Tree garden installation.
Art: Guests were invited to explore multiple art installations from local and international artists, which could be found across the House and its gardens. Fernando Arias’ ‘Around a Tree’ for Más Arte Más Acción, featured a hand-carved wooden roundtable with the contours of the critically endangered but tirelessly defended Atrato River, raising questions on environmental defenders and indigenous rights. ‘Amazonium’ by Thijs Biersteker in collaboration with UNESCO and LVMH, featured a fabric tapestry handmade to re-create the shapes and colours of the rainforest, arranged to illustrate the positive impact directly resulting from UNESCO-led restoration and conservation projects in the Amazon Basin.
Food: Partnering with Colombian organisation MUCHO and a local chef, they sourced seasonal, sustainable products from 15 small-scale Afro-Colombian and indigenous farmers across 9 regions, ensuring every menu item celebrated Colombia’s vibrant culinary heritage.
The Results
TITLE AREA
A record 23,500 delegates attended COP16, marking it the largest Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) COP to date. This attendance underscores the significance of implementing the historic Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, highlighting the growing importance of nature and biodiversity on the global agenda.
Nature House in numbers:
- 4 DAYS
- 3 SPACES
- 5 PERFORMANCES
- 25 EVENTS HOSTED
- 44 ORGANISATIONS CONNECTED
- 1700+ GLOBAL CHANGEMAKERS
OTHER WORK
