Nature Climate Change, Published online: 16 October 2026; doi:10.1038/s41558-026-02778-8This year, all three major Rio Conventions — on biodiversity, climate and desertification — convene their respective Conference of the Parties (COP). In advance of the biodiversity COP17, Astrid Schomaker, the executive secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity, discusses the irrefutable need to integrate biodiversity conservation into broader environmental action to ensure local and global security and prosperity in a rapidly changing world.