Helping our partners stand out at the world’s largest biodiversity conference

At WhereNext, we are deeply commited to projects that create meaningful global impact, and we take immense pride in supporting our partners at events like COP16. Contributing to the world’s largest biodiversity conference reinforces our mission to amplify efforts that protect our planet’s ecosystems, promote sustainable practices, and inspire positive change. We are honored to play a role in these global conversations and stand alongside our partners to shape a more sustainable future.

As nations worldwide race to meet environmental commitments, delegates from more than 190 countries gathered in the Colombian city of Cali in October for the United Nations' 2024 Biodiversity Conference.

In the gathering, known as COP16, delegates discussed new ways to help developing nations fund their conservation efforts and meet a target established by UN member states two years ago to set aside 30% of the earth’s surface for nature by the end of this decade.

Meanwhile, hundreds of events were organized on the sidelines of these negotiations, where scientists, business leaders, environmental activists, and policymakers discussed ways to preserve critical ecosystems and contribute to the recovery of plant and animal life around the planet.

Three of our partners ran activities during COP16 that focused on promoting nature tourism (USAID), developing sustainable construction methods (CEELA), and creating supply chains for tropical crops to help communities live off the rainforest without destroying it (Colombia + Competitiva).

WhereNext deployed our team of sustainable tourism experts, advertising creatives, videographers, social media specialists, and graphic designers to help our partners amplify their message, launch new initiatives, and connect with allies working to preserve biodiversity.

Here's how we helped our clients to stand out during this massive international event.

Destination Nature – Challenging Colombians to travel in a more adventurous way

Destination Nature, a USAID project that supports the development of nature tourism in Colombia, ran a busy program during COP16. This included numerous panels on sustainable tourism policies, biodiverse destinations, and local tour companies' challenges.

The project also launched a new campaign during COP16 that encourages Colombians to spend their holidays in nature destinations like jungles, cloud forests, and remote beaches. Tourism income gives local communities an incentive to preserve fragile ecosystems.

Before COP16 began, we developed a creative concept for this new campaign: “Colombiamorphosis.”

The campaign and its flagship video were presented in a panel led by Colombian TV presenter and environmental activist Claudia Bahamon, Simon Mejia, the producer of the internationally acclaimed tropical fusion band Bomba Stereo, and Destination Nature Chief of Party Julián Guerrero.

Thanks to its timing, thoughtful content, and association with local celebrities, Colombian media outlets widely covered the campaign launch.

WhereNext also worked with Destination Nature to boost the visibility of small companies developing nature tourism experiences in rural areas of Colombia, giving locals an economic incentive to preserve natural habitats.

Through a campaign developed by our in-house creative team, Hosts by Nature, or Anfitriones por Naturaleza, Destination Nature invited rural tourism entrepreneurs to attend the COP16 event, where they met other donors and potential customers.

The Hosts by Nature program participants were also featured in a video produced by our production team and shared on USAID’s social media platforms. Some routes they offer were also included in a guide to Cali and Colombia produced by Cali’s municipal government, published online, and handed out to all conference delegates.

Jaramillo explained that including the Hosts by Nature entrepreneurs in this guidebook exemplified our communications agency’s “360 approach.”

In addition to promoting Destination Nature activities, WhereNext led its tourism-related event. Julian Manrique, the director of photography for our YouTube series, The Birders Show, led a panel on bird photography for beginners.

With ten thousand subscribers on YouTube and dozens of episodes recorded in Colombia’s top birdwatching spots, the show is one of WhereNext’s passion projects. During his COP16 lecture, Manrique shared some of the basics of bird photography with the general public, fueling their interest in conservation and encouraging them to head into Colombia’s rainforests and cloud forests to make their own bird photos.

Colombia + Competitiva – Promoting the demand for bioingredients

While some team members focused on helping Destination Nature make the most of COP16, others worked with Colombia + Competitiva (A More Competitive Colombia), an international development project financed by the Swiss Government’s Secretariat for Economic Affairs. The project is boosting sustainable and inclusive growth in Colombia.

Colombia + Competitiva, or C+C, organized a series of panels and conferences on the sidelines of the COP16 negotiations. Experts discussed the challenges of building sustainable business that benefit from biodiversity.

The project also launched an online catalog of tropical fruits and seeds, known as “bioingredients,” that communities in Colombia and elsewhere in South America are increasingly harvesting to live off rainforests without destroying them. These bio ingredients include edible fruits, like the Amazonian acai berry, but also fruits and nuts that are used by companies around the world to make soap, shampoo, makeup, and textiles.

WhereNext’s communication team covered C+C’s events at the conference with carefully crafted LinkedIn and X posts that mixed text, graphics, and photos. These posts garnered over 25,000 organic impressions on LinkedIn, a key platform for C+C.

We also designed two newsletters that covered C+C’s events at COP16 and were sent to a mailing list of stakeholders, as well as an additional newsletter promoting the new catalog of bioingredients. The document includes QR codes that readers can use to connect with companies harvesting Amazonian products like Acai, Sacha Inchi, and Achiote.

CEELA – Making the connection between sustainable construction and biodiversity preservation

CEELA is a project financed by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation that focuses on strengthening Latin American countries' capacity to build energy-efficient buildings.

The project’s leaders participated in several COP16 events and helped Cali’s municipal government launch a certification program for sustainable buildings—such as those constructed with low carbon emissions and designed with materials that reduce the need for air conditioning in Cali’s hot tropical climate.

Our communications team developed a strategy for CEELA that included using graphics and photos to cover the certification program launch on the agency’s social media platforms. We also highlighted CEELA’s presence at the event and boosted communication with the agency’s followers.

CEELA staff were encouraged to record videos of themselves at the event, which WhereNext’s social media team edited. In the videos, the CEELA specialists answered questions about the link between sustainable construction and the preservation of biodiversity.