Highlights and images for 25 March 2026

Nearing the midway point of the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP15) to the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS) on Wednesday, COP15 ranged widely, even wildly, and certainly deeply, across agenda items.

Want to dig deeper into today's talks? Read the full Earth Negotiations Bulletin daily report.

The Committee of the Whole (CoW) spent much of the day in the depths of the Ocean, as delegates took up the conservation of aquatic species such as whales, turtles, freshwater fish, and the European eel (Anguilla anguilla). Whales, deemed by one delegate as “the most iconic migratory species,” range widely, crisscrossing the globe in annual cycles.

Along the way, these species face the prospect of vessel strikes and suffer from noise pollution and entanglement. Efforts to ensure that these vital ocean and continent connectors thrive will hinge on work in the CoW and working groups, which have quickly been put to work on a flurry of substantive negotiations over draft texts.   

Yet amid all of this action, it was a brief interlude of music and motion that stopped the CoW in its tracks. As the Committee moved forward with an agenda item urging greater support for multiple systems of knowledge in conservation actions, Edinalda Nascimento, an Indigenous and local communities representative, stressed the importance of connectivity and migratory species to sustainable livelihoods.

Her powerful statement that traditional knowledge is essential for preserving vital links among people and their environments drew Indigenous people and local community advocates to their feet, breaking into song to the rhythmic rattle of maracas.

That burst of song and music in the morning meeting of the CoW provided a vivid reminder that debates over draft texts, though at times dry and abstract, matter in tangible ways for enhancing connections between humans and nature.

After applause from the assembled delegates and a heartfelt “merci beaucoup” from the CoW Chair, delegates dove back into the depths of their agenda, eventually forwarding several items to the COP for adoption.