Dubai: Biodiversity’s critical role in the survival of the planet, and the importance of listening to and learning from nature, dominated discussion at Expo 2020 Dubai’s first World Majlis at the Terra – The Sustainability Pavilion today.

Held as part of Climate and Biodiversity Week, the Majlis featured seven thought leaders and experts from around the world, who traded ideas on everything from using birds of prey to deal with rodents destroying crops in Israel, Jordan and Palestine, to overhauling educational curricula in a lively 90-minute session.

World-renowned ecological expert and founder of the Eden Project in the UK, Sir Tim Smit, who was pivotal in developing Expo 2020’s cutting-edge Terra Pavilion, praised the World Majlis concept. “It’s important for a very simple reason that the world has been dominated by the great European or Western capitals, and they carry a weight of baggage on them, which makes change very difficult.

“And what’s so exciting about Dubai in particular, and the Emirates as a whole, is that it doesn’t carry that baggage, which means that people are happy to talk about things, although they wouldn’t necessarily want to come to London to have those discussions. I think this could develop into something of great significance, so I’m very proud to be part of it.”

Entitled ‘Nature’s Game of Jenga: Getting Creative to Fight Biodiversity Loss’, the Majlis was held in collaboration with the Switzerland Pavilion.