Jane Goodall warns on 'false promises' at UN biodiversity meet

World-respected British primate expert Jane Goodall wants a coming United Nations summit on biodiversity to lead to action rather than "words and false promises".

As officials from around 200 countries meet in the Colombian city of Cali for the COP16 meeting starting Monday, the indefatigable zoologist said there was little time left to reverse the downward slide.

"I hope that not only will some decisions be made to protect biodiversity... but that this will be followed by action because the time for words and false promises is past if we want to save the planet," Goodall told AFP.

At 90, Goodall is still crisscrossing the globe in a bid to help defend the chimpanzee, who she first went to Tanzania to study more than 60 years ago.

A UN Messenger of Peace since 2002, Goodall has been outspoken about the damage done to nature.

But she also highlighted how other issues, notably climate change, were worsening the biodiversity crisis.

"The trouble is everything, all the problems that we face... they're all interrelated."

Taking her cue from a recent scientific evaluation, Goodall said the world had just "five years in which we can start slowing down climate change and so on".

"Good news, there's groups of people working on every one of the problems. Unfortunately, so many are working in their own little narrow path," she said.

"You may solve one problem, and if you're not thinking holistically, that may create another problem."

- 'Each individual matters' -

Besides biodiversity, COP16 organizers have said Indigenous peoples will take an active part in the talks.

Even if Indigenous peoples have been all too often disappointed by the final decisions taken at biodiversity COPs, that progress and increased presence was hailed by Goodall.

"Fortunately, we're beginning to listen to the voices of the Indigenous people. We're beginning to learn from them some of the ways that they've lived in harmony with the environment," she said.

Goodall also urged nations to tackle poverty to help protect the environment.

"We need to also alleviate poverty because very poor people destroy the environment in order to survive," she said.

The scientist, who never travels without her plush toy monkey she calls "Mr H", was in Paris to give a talk at UNESCO on Saturday.

Preaching the importance of keeping alive the hope humanity can save the world, Goodall came with the message: "Realize every day you make a difference."

"Each individual matters. Each individual has a role to play, and every one of us makes some impact on the planet every single day, and we can choose what sort of impact we make," she said.

"It's not only up to government and big business. It's up to all of us to make changes in our lives."

- 'Brave man' Paul Watson -

Goodall likewise called for France's President Emmanuel Macron to intervene on behalf of anti-whaling campaigner Paul Watson.

Subject to an extradition request from Japan, the 73-year-old US-Canadian activist was arrested in July in Greenland.

Watson has since written to Macron seeking asylum in France, his group Sea Shepherd said on Wednesday.

"I sincerely hope that President Macron will grant asylum to Paul Watson," Goodall said.

"He's a brave man. He's been fighting a very, very unbelievably cruel industry," she said, adding that the activist "has my full admiration".

On Thursday, French government spokeswoman Maud Bregeon said France's position on the matter was "not clear-cut".

Japan accuses Watson of causing damage to a whaling ship in 2010 and injuring a Japanese crew member with a stink bomb intended to disrupt the whalers' activities.