The world's largest biodiversity summit was due to take place this week in Kunming, China, but has been postponed once again due to the global pandemic. In a year which has been dominated by COVID-19, Stephen Cole looks at the future of the world's wildlife and its fundamental link to the fate of the planet. Although the pandemic has in many ways thrown the fate of the natural world into further flux, it has also shown that protecting nature's health is essential if we are also to protect our own.

According to the UN's fifth Global Biodiversity Outlook, released in September last year, human activity is continuing to destroy habitats across the globe. One million species of animals and plants were reported in 2019 to be at risk of extinction – but not a single 2010 target to prevent this destruction has yet been reached. Stephen speaks to the woman who will be leading Kunming in October, the Executive Secretary for the UN's Convention on Biodiversity Elizabeth Maruma Mrema about how to ensure the targets for 2030 yield better results.

Also in the show is Dimitri De Boer from Client Earth in Beijing who explains the role China has to play in the biodiversity conversation as this year's host of the 15th Conference of Parties.

And finally - Stephen is joined by Frederick Kumah and Jia Qiao from the African Wildlife Foundation to understand why the continent is facing unprecedented levels of extinction despite being home to a third of the world's biodiversity.

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