A repeatedly postponed UN summit tasked with protecting nature and halting accelerating species loss will be held in early December, more than two years behind schedule, sources told AFP.

Originally slated to take place in China, the COP15 conference on biological diversity -- or biodiversity -- is now set for December 5 to 17 in Montreal, they said.

"Governments have finally made a decision on where and when the COP will be held," said Li Shuo, a climate, biodiversity and ocean policy advisor for Greenpeace East Asia.

"This should now focus everyone's minds on the quality of the deal," he tweeted as nearly 200 governments gathered in Nairobi for technical talks in preparation for the 12-day conference in December.

"That means ambitious targets to ensure strong protection both on land and at sea, and a robust implementation package," added. "The remaining months to COP15 should be used effectively to unlock contentious issues such as finance."

Delayed at first by the Covid pandemic, the talks have also failed to make much headway in forging a treaty that can do for biodiversity what the 2015 Paris Agreement did for climate.

One of the cornerstone provisions under discussion would see 30 percent of both land and ocean designated as protected areas by 2030.

The world failed almost entirely to reach similar objectives set in 2010 under the UN's Convention on Biological Diversity.

The COP15 saw a ceremonial opening in October 2021 in Kunming, China, where the summit had been scheduled to take place a year earlier, but little of substance was achieved.

The meeting in Montreal, if it goes forward, will bring together thousands of government officials and ministers, along with scientists, environmental activists and journalists.

Negotiators in Nairobi this week and next are hammering out a draft text of the so-called global biodiversity framework that, for the moment, is little more than a compendium of competing proposals separated by brackets.

According to the most recent Protected Planet report by the UN Environment World Conservation Monitoring Centre, 17 percent of land habitats and around seven percent of marine areas were protected by 2020.

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