Achim Steiner - UNEP Executive Director (m):
When we talk about biodiversity, we talk about life on earth. When we talk about biodiversity loss, we are talking about destroying life on earth.


Janez Potocnik - European Commissioner for Environment (M):
Biodiversity is sometimes in the shadow of climate change, which is extremely important, but we should understand that biodiversity is actually the other side of the same coin.


Harrison Ford - Oscar-nominated US actor & producer, Conservation International Board member (M): Biodiversity; it is the foundation of life on earth.


Edward Norton – Oscar-nominated US actor, screenwriter and director; UN Goodwill Ambassador for Biodiversity (m): Human wellbeing is intertwined fundamentally with biodiversity.


Dr. Harold Mooney - American ecologist from Stanford University ; Co-chair of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (m):
The impact of human activities on biodiversity is influencing feedbacks to the climate system.


Anthony Kleanthous – Senior Policy Adviser on Sustainable Business and Economics at WWF-UK (m): We have lost 30% of the biodiversity on this planet in just 40 years. And in the tropics we’re talking about 60% declines in biodiversity.

Edward Norton – Oscar-nominated US actor, screenwriter and director; UN Goodwill Ambassador for Biodiversity (m): At the end of the day the things that are causing the most catastrophic collapse to biodiversity: climate change, deforestation.


His Royal Highness, Prince Charles of Wales (m): And without adequately addressing tropical deforestation we cannot have an answer to climate change. Saving the rainforests is not an option.


H. E. Paulo Alberto da Silveira Soares – Brazilian Ambassador (m): The Amazon is nowadays the lungs of the world.


Paulo Adario - Greenpeace Amazon Representative, Brazil (m): Cattle is the main driver of forest destruction, and 80% of the area that is destroyed in the Amazon is occupied by cattle today, this is growing.


Michelle Rodriquez – US Actress in Oscar-winning film Avatar (f): They’re making room just to feed cows, so they’re chopping down a bunch of trees.


James Cameron – Oscar-winning Director; Avatar (m): Yeah, but they’re not just chopping down any trees, they’re chopping down the most beautiful, majestic, bio diverse rainforest on the planet.


Anthony Kleanthous – Senior Policy Adviser on Sustainable Business and Economics at WWF-UK (m): You know meat and dairy really are the primary concern here.


H. E. Paulo Alberto da Silveira Soares – Brazilian Ambassador (m): Brazil is a net producer of meat.


Yannick Jadot – European Parliament Member, from France (M): Animal feed is coming from Latin America which is also contributing to deforestation and so to climate change.


H.E. Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva – 35th President of Brazil (m): We have been discussing the climate change issue and more and more we see that the problem is even more severe that we could have ever imagined.


H. E. Paulo Alberto da Silveira Soares – Brazilian Ambassador (m): So we have to strike a balance, like for instance instead of producing so much cattle, so much livestock in all this devastated area where they are breeding cattle, why not to produce more soya, which would cost you much more. And this would benefit the health of us, of me, you and everyone in the world. Less consumption of meat only helps your health and the climate change.


Her Excellency Claudine Schneider – Former US Congresswoman, Board Member of US Climate Institute (f): We would be addressing not just deforestation but the problems of erosion and loss of clean drinking water. We would also be enabling people to live a healthier and longer life.


Ben Ten Brink - Program Manager, Nature, Landscape and Biodiversity, Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency (M): So there’s I think three good reasons, biodiversity, climate change and personal health to reduce the consumption of meat.


Pavan Sukhdev - Study leader for The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB), Head of UNEP's Green Economy Initiative (m): Today something like 25% of all land is in some form or the other used for meat food. So if you could somehow think of more efficient ways of making use of the same land, I think that will be a huge favor that we do ourselves. So we should reduce our meat consumption in my opinion as well.


Dr. Ann Larigauderie - Executive Director, DIVERSITAS – Vegetarian(f): Yes, being a little more vegetarian that would be a really major contribution to the biodiversity problem.


Jo Leinen - European Parliament Member, Chair of Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (M): The protection of biodiversity means that we have to reduce emissions and the consumption of resources; and that means we have to change our lifestyle – our lifestyle is much too heavy for the nature and the ecosystems, and especially our eating habits have to be changed. I think we eat too much meat and we eat too much fish, and we have to reduce both and be more vegetarian.


Sir Paul McCartney – Former Beatles Member & meat-free advocate (m):
Join us in this effort, reduce meat.


Kerry McCarthy – British MP, vegan (f): People shouldn’t just be lobbying their MP’s about aviation and things like that, they should also be lobbying them about the livestock sector. I think that’s really important.


Mary Robinson, 7th President of Ireland (F): It is important, as you know well in this room, that we change our behaviour, and that we learn how to be better stewards of this earth. So I admire the way in which you are also putting a lot of emphasis on your own lifestyles, what you eat, what you grow, how you behave.


José María Figueres Olsen, former President of Costa Rica (M): One of the important contributions that we could make to lower carbon emissions is a change in our diets. That is the change we need, the change that will guarantee us a much better quality of life on a much better cared-for planet than the one we have today, which is what we all want.


Mayor Jaime Hernández Zaragoza, Cancún, Mexico (M): This night is an exceptional night, a night of lights, a night in which Supreme Master Ching Hai enlightens us with her presence to bring help to those who are already suffering the consequences of this terrible phenomenon, which threatens our planet and all its inhabitants. I will disseminate what is agreed on here, what is proposed here, and all the solutions that are put on the table and in this organization; I shall make them as my own, with my family and with all the inhabitants of the municipality.


Ben Ten Brink: Be Veg,
Pavan Sukhdev: Go Green
Ben Ten Brink: 2 Save the Planet!
Pavan Sukhdev: Save the planet!