Hello. We congratulate the CITES convention today, on its 50th anniversary and its many successes over this half century of work, this year's theme, investing in people and planet, is a call to action for all of us to recognize that we cannot protect Nature without empowering the communities that depend on it, and we cannot ensure sustainable development without prioritizing the health of our ecosystems, it's crucial to understand that protecting Nature is not just an environmental issue, but an economic and social one, from clean water and air to resilient agriculture and climate regulation, Nature provides the essential services that support our daily lives.
By investing in Nature, we invest in the future of people, particularly those in vulnerable communities most affected by environmental degradation. At UniFi we support this transition in thinking by fostering collaboration to integrate Nature into the heart of financial decision making. By working together, we can develop innovative financing mechanisms that encourage sustainable investment in Nature and unlock the potential for sustainable growth. Now in the combat against illegal wildlife trade, financial institutions have a really critical role to play. Illegal wildlife trade is a transnational organized crime that generates billions of dollars of criminal proceeds each year.
As such, the banking sector can be crucial in combating the illegal money laundering related to illegal wildlife trade, but also in the insurance sector. We've been working through the principle of sustainable insurance on combating illegal, unreported and unrelated, regulated fishing. I urge all of us to look beyond silos and recognize the challenges we face. The very, very interconnected. Let us continue to build these partnerships, collaborate with urgency and creativity and investe in solutions that benefit both people and the planet. Thank you very much. And a big happy anniversary to the CITES convention.